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Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Policies - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Policies

Policies

Creative Commons maintains and publishes policies that apply to the use of our websites, content and software that we publish, our trademarks, and to those participating in the Creative Commons Global Network, including Individual and Institutional Members, as well as non-Members who participate in CC projects around the world. Note that some of these policies are maintained on other website pages but can be viewed by clicking on the relevant link below.

The following policies are applicable to anyone who uses our websites.

The Creative Commons Trademark Policy applies to anyone who uses the CC trademarks.

When you participate in the Creative Commons Global Network (“CCGN”) as a member or non-member, in addition to the generally applicable policies on this page, the following legal policies apply to you as you engage with CC and the network:

CC’s Licensing Statement for Content and Software Code

Other than the Creative Commons trademarks (licensed subject to the Trademark Policy below) and the text of Creative Commons legal tools and human-readable Commons deeds (dedicated to the public domain as specified below), all content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license unless otherwise marked.

Software: All of the software code we create is free software. Please check our code repository for the specific license that applies to software code you wish to use.
Legal text (we call this legal code) and Commons deeds: Creative Commons makes the legal code of its licenses and the CC0 Public Domain Dedication available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. CC also makes the Commons deeds associated with its licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication, and the Public Domain Mark available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. This allows anyone to reuse those texts for any purpose; however, CC reserves fully and unconditionally all trademark and branding rights associated with the licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication, and the Commons deeds. See the Trademark Policy below for more detail.

Creative Commons Trademark Policy

Trademarks are words, graphic designs, or other indicia that identify the source of a product or service. Creative Commons uses a variety of trademarks. Some Creative Commons trademarks serve the purpose of (i) communicating the type of legal tool chosen by the rights holder and/or (ii) indicating that the creator has applied a Creative Commons license to her work. Our registered trademarks and other trademarks include CREATIVE COMMONS (regardless of stylization, capitalization, translation, or other presentation), CC (including the CC in a circle logo (the “CC Logo”) and CC standing alone), CC+ (within a circle or standing alone) and CCPlus, CC0, all of the Creative Commons license and public domain buttons and icons, and any combination of the foregoing, whether integrated into a larger whole or standing alone. This also includes all of the CC trademarks incorporated into Unicode and any other similar standard.

You are authorized to use our trademarks subject to this Trademark Policy, and only on the further condition that you download images of the trademarks directly from our website or apply them through an authorized provider, including software that incorporates the trademarks in Unicode. You are not authorized to use any modified versions of our trademarks, except that you may use a different color for the CC logo and its background so long as the two colors chosen have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1.

Creative Commons retains the right to revoke any trademark license for any reason or for no specified reason. Creative Commons is particularly likely to revoke a license if, in its sole discretion, it finds that your use of the trademark is likely to bring disrepute to Creative Commons or any of its trademarks, or confuses the public. For the avoidance of doubt, you do not need our permission to use our corporate logo for referential use (e.g., to refer to Creative Commons as an organization), provided that such use does not imply endorsement by or association with Creative Commons.

For the avoidance of doubt, no member of the CC affiliate network or of the CC Global Network, including chapters, is authorized to use CC’s trademarks except in compliance with this policy. This includes, without limitation, that no use of CC trademarks may be used for projects or activities that are not expressly approved in advance by Creative Commons (via legal@creativecommons.org). Creative Commons intends to update these policies in advance of the CC Global Summit 2018, and once updated will apply to all members of the CC Global Network.

Modification of CC Licenses: To prevent confusion and maintain consistency, you are not allowed to use CREATIVE COMMONS, CC, the CC Logo, or any other Creative Commons trademarks with modified versions of any of our legal tools or Commons deeds, including modifications that do not modify the legal code directly but that further restrict or condition the rights granted by the particular legal tool. These modifications are often contained in a website’s terms of use, and where they are present you may not suggest that you are offering works under a Creative Commons legal tool. For the avoidance of doubt, you may not use any CC trademarks with unofficial language translations of CC licenses. See this page for more information.

Creative Commons Public Copyright License Marks: Creative Commons licenses the use of its public copyright license marks, which include the CC Logo, on the conditions that you use the marks solely to describe the Creative Commons license that applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or a hyperlink to the corresponding Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Public Domain Dedication Marks: Creative Commons licenses the use of its public domain dedication marks, on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe that the CC0 Public Domain Dedication applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or a hyperlink to the Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Public Domain Mark: Creative Commons licenses the use of its trademarked Public Domain Mark badge on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe that the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the Public Domain Mark on the Creative Commons server.

Creative Commons License Buttons and Icons: Creative Commons licenses the use of its button marks that describe a particular legal tool and its icon marks that describe a key license element, such as BY, NC, ND, and SA, on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe the Creative Commons legal tool that applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the relevant Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Legacy marks: Creative Commons has retired some of its prior legal tools, all of which have associated trademarks, such as the Developing Nations License, the Sampling License, and Founder’s Copyright. Although these tools have been retired and are no longer recommended for use, they are still legally effective as to works to which they are applied. Therefore, those trademarks may only be used under the terms and conditions of this Trademark Policy. Creative Commons licenses the use of its legacy marks on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe the Creative Commons legal tool that applies to the particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the relevant Commons deed on the Creative Commons server. Note that legacy marks are not available for download on our website.

Additional permissions: In addition to the permissions granted in advance to the public as set forth above, Creative Commons may agree to grant additional permissions upon request. Please submit any such request to legal@creativecommons.org. Except as specifically stated above or otherwise set forth in a written agreement with you, no additional permissions are granted.

Merchandising Policy: If you would like to use the Creative Commons or other CC trademarks on clothing or other merchandise, you must first receive permission from Creative Commons. Please submit your request to legal@creativecommons.org.

CCGN Internet Services Policy

This Policy governs the operation of websites, social media accounts, and mailing lists for CC Chapters in the Creative Commons Global Network.

Chapter Websites

To avoid confusion, all Chapters should have one principal public source of online information about the Chapter and its activities. Chapters can choose to use a subdomain provided and hosted by CC HQ, or Chapters can use a domain name of their own and host/manage the site themselves. If Chapters use their own domain name, the subdomain will be forwarded, so that everyone coming to creativecommons.org can find the site.

                       Subdomains: Creative Commons will establish a subdomain on its main website for each Chapter. The sub-domain will consist of xx.creativecommons.org, where xx is the top-level domain extension for the Project’s jurisdiction (e.g., ca.creativecommons.org). The subdomain will be maintained by CC HQ as part of a WordPress multisite setup. Each Chapter is asked to designate at least one representative to be on point to correspond with CC about administrator access privileges to the subdomain.

                       Top-Level Domain Names (“TLDs”) and Country Code Top-Level Domains (“ccTLD”): Chapters may decide to use a separate domain name. We ask that such website holders hold the domain name and website in trust for Creative Commons, and add Creative Commons as a technical contact on the WHOIS for the site. If, at any time, the Chapter decides that the website and domain should be operated by another person or institution or retired, the website holder must cooperate in the transfer or lapse of the website and domain, as applicable. Creative Commons reserves the right to decide that a TLD must be transferred to Creative Commons or shut down in order to avoid trademark confusion, if a Chapter was unable to continue operating, or for any other reason.

Chapter Website Content

All website content on Chapter Websites should be made available under a CC license, ideally CC BY 4.0 or CC0. Chapters should establish their own guidelines for continued operation and updating of their Chapter Website, consistent with the Chapter Guidelines (https://github.com/creativecommons/global-network-strategy/blob/master/docs/chapters-guidelines.md) and other CC policies. All Chapter Websites must include a prominent disclaimer that the website does not provide legal advice. CC reserves the right to request the removal of any content that fails (in CC’s sole discretion) to comply with this or other CC policies.

Chapter Website Administration

As part of the main Creative Commons website, the subdomains are managed by Creative Commons and therefore subject to all of the policies of the CC site, including the DMCA policy, terms of service, and privacy policy. Every participant in a Chapter agrees to comply with all such policies and will take any actions requested by CC in order to ensure compliance. Unlike subdomains, Chapters that choose to operate TLDs in accordance with the above are alone responsible for ensuring that they establish and maintain terms of service, a privacy policy, and any other policies necessary to comply with applicable laws, including copyright and data privacy laws.

Chapter Social Media Accounts

Chapters may establish and maintain a single account on a reasonable number of public-facing social media platforms on behalf of the Chapter. The Chapter should track the accounts, platforms, and login information as they are established, and alert CC as to which accounts it has and who operates them on behalf of the Chapter. The Chapter is responsible for ensuring consistency and quality in the content and operation of those accounts, and may establish guidelines in accordance with the Chapter Guidelines (https://github.com/creativecommons/global-network-strategy/blob/master/docs/chapters-standards.md) to achieve this.

Chapter Mailing Lists

If a Chapter wants to set up and maintain a mailing list for its activities, the Chapter may use the services provided by Creative Commons. Whether or not using CC-provided mailing lists, everyone participating in a Chapter must comply with data privacy laws when dealing with participant email addresses and other personal information.

Chapter Github Repositories

Each Chapter may request that Creative Commons open one repository on their behalf on CC’s organization account on Github. The Chapter is responsible for ensuring that the repository is used in accordance with Github terms and applicable law.

Note: This policy may be updated from time to time following consultation and collaboration with the Global Network Council.

Chapter Logo Policy

Every CC Chapter around the world, once established in accordance with the Charter and other applicable rules and guidelines, may create a single logo to designate their particular country chapter (“Chapter Logo”). The Chapter Logo must include our “Creative Commons” name and/or our CC in a circle logo in their original font and style.

Chapter Logo Approval: The Chapter Lead must submit the Chapter Logo to legal@creativecommons.org for approval. For the avoidance of doubt, this approval requirement applies even in cases where a Chapter selects a logo that was previously used in connection with a CC affiliate team under the prior network governance model.

Use of the Chapter Logo: We give you permission to use the approved Chapter Logo of the CC Chapter in which you are a participant, solely in order to promote and further the CC-related work done by your CC Chapter consistent with the Charter [https://creativecommons.org/network/charter/], the rules established by the CC Global Network Council, and the policies and positions established by Creative Commons. We recognize that you and the other individuals and institutions involved in your CC Chapter are also engaged in jobs, projects, and activities that are tangentially or unrelated to CC.  For the avoidance of doubt, you and others involved in the CC Chapter are not entitled to use the Chapter Logo for any purposes other than those stated above.

We will continue to work with you to ensure that you and others involved in the CC Chapter use the Chapter Logo in a manner consistent with the principles and policies of CC.  You agree to fully cooperate with and take any actions requested by CC relating to all usage of the Chapter Logo by anyone involved in your CC Chapter. It is understood that CC can end this permission at any time in its sole discretion, including if at any time your status as a participant ends, the CC Chapter becomes inactive, or if you or others involved in the CC Chapter fail to cooperate with or adhere to the policies of CC.  

You further agree to comply with any policies set forth by your Chapter as to how the Chapter Logo may or may not be used. In the event of a conflict between a guideline set forth by your Chapter and a policy of Creative Commons, the Creative Commons policy will govern.

Ownership of the Chapter Logo: All uses of the Chapter Logo will inure solely to Creative Commons. You and the others involved in your CC Chapter will obtain no ownership or other rights to the Chapter Logo.  You agree not to contest, oppose, impair, or challenge CC’s ownership of the Chapter Logos or any of its other trademarks. You will not register or attempt to register the Chapter Logo as a trademark in any jurisdiction and will not oppose CC’s registration or use of the Chapter Logo.

Page last updated: 29 May 2018

#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-SA 4.0
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Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • for any purpose, even commercially.
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

  • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
This page is available in the following languages: Languages
cc logo

Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • for any purpose, even commercially.
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
#####EOF##### Intergovernmental Organizations - Creative Commons

Intergovernmental Organizations

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Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are using CC to share research, data, and educational materials they produce. IGOs, like all creators who want wide dissemination of their content, realize they can benefit greatly from the use of Creative Commons licenses--maximizing the impact of their resources and efforts. A number of IGOs believe that as publicly minded institutions, adopting an open licensing policy for at least some subset of their publications is the preferred mechanism for ensuring the broadest and most widespread use and reuse of the information they publish.

This page explains some of the benefits for IGOs choosing to publish content under Creative Commons licenses, clarifies some unique legal considerations, provides case study of IGOs already using CC, aggregates relevant frequently asked questions, and addresses common licensing scenarios and options available to IGOs.

Why Intergovernmental Organizations Benefit from Using CC

IGOs' missions are aligned with sharing information and resources

Disseminating useful information globally is aligned with the mission and work of most IGOs. Sharing information and content -- ranging from education assessment metrics to cultural heritage resources to research studies on the environmental impact of fossil fuels to health information -- is central to the success of IGOs. Information and content that IGOs create can be made maximally useful to the diverse communities they serve, helping citizens, governments, civic institutions, and businesses across all sectors.

CC helps clarify rights to users in advance

Materials like reports, photographs and videos released under the default All Rights Reserved copyright require the end user to ask permission in order to use the resource in the absence of some applicable exception or limitation under applicable copyright law. This framework means IGOs must dedicate resources to review and approve those requests. From the user perspective, the time and effort required to obtain the permission can be significant. The result is that resources are less likely to be used, shared, or repurposed, significantly diminishing the potential impact of information published. (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has described the challenges to dissemination of information under the All Rights Reserved copyright framework as follows: "While information technology makes it possible to multiply and distribute content worldwide and almost at no cost, legal restrictions on the reuse of copyrighted material hamper its negotiability in the digital environment ... [T]he Creative Commons license is by far the best-known license for such content, the use of which is growing exponentially." OECD (2007) Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources, p.13.

Creative Commons licenses offer a simple, standardized way to grant flexible copyright permissions in advance. The adoption of Creative Commons licenses increases the dissemination, discoverability, reuse, and translatability of research and education materials. CC licenses are the global standard for open content licenses, and are leveraged by corporations, institutions, and government bodies worldwide. Creative Commons licenses lower the transaction costs normally associated with seeking and granting permission to use resources by granting limited permission in advance.

CC helps ensure IGOs receive credit for the resources they create

IGOs who use CC licenses get the credit they deserve for the work they create. All CC licenses require that attribution be given to author in the manner specified. IGOs also need not worry about expending resources crafting custom terms of service specifying how their works can be used. Creative Commons licenses contain vetted, legally robust standard copyright terms and conditions. These common features serve as the baseline, on top of which IGOs can choose to grant additional permissions if desired.

FAQ: CC Licenses and IGOs

IGOs are unique in several respects from individuals and other organizations. Below are some common questions about how CC licenses work for IGOs.

Can intergovernmental organizations ("IGOs") use CC licenses?

Anyone may use CC licenses for works they own, including IGOs. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons published a 3.0 ported license suite specifically intended for use by IGOs. These ported licenses -- known as the 3.0 IGO ported licenses -- grant all of the same permissions as our international (unported) 3.0 licenses; however, they have two unique provisions. First, unlike all other 3.0 licenses, where the licensor is an IGO then unless otherwise mutually agreed, disputes are resolved by mediation or, if that is unsuccessful, through arbitration. This provision was included in response to the challenges IGOs face with enforcing their copyright. IGOs have privileges and immunities from national legal processes, including judicial processes. Waiving that immunity so they can bring suit in a national legal forum can be exceedingly difficult. Instead, IGOs typically use mediation and arbitration as the preferred means to resolve legal disputes.

Second, unlike the other 3.0 licenses, the 3.0 IGO ported licenses contain a cure period just like CC's new 4.0 licenses. If a licensee fixes a license violation within 30 days of discovery, the license automatically reinstates. The inclusion of the provision is intended to help reduce the likelihood that mediation and arbitration become necessary.

What should I know before I use a work licensed under the IGO 3.0 ported licenses?

You should be aware of the dispute resolution mechanism in the license, which is contained in Section 8(h). Disputes involving works licensed by IGOs under the licenses are resolved by mediation and arbitration.

Generally, mediation is a process used to avoid settling a dispute in court. The process typically involves a neutral third party (called a mediator) who tries to help the parties resolve the dispute. Mediation is not binding, however, unless the parties agree otherwise. Arbitration is also used to avoid settling a dispute in court, but the third party (called an arbitrator) has authority to make a decision in favor of one party. Arbitration tends to be more formal than mediation.

Before using any work licensed by an IGO under the IGO 3.0 ported licenses, be sure you understand what the mediation and arbitration processes are that have been chosen by the IGO and know what they mean for you. IGOs typically designate those in the copyright notice attached to the work.

How does the mediation and arbitration provision work?

Assuming a violation of the license has occurred and the dispute cannot be amicably resolved, the process starts with mediation. The IGO/licensor sends a notice of mediation to the licensee designating the mediation rules if those are not already identified in the copyright notice accompanying the work. If mediation is unsuccessful, then either the licensor or licensee can chose to commence arbitration. If arbitration becomes necessary, then those proceedings allow for remote participation (e.g., by teleconference, written submissions, etc.) whenever practicable.

IGOs have the ability to designate the particular mediation and arbitration rules in the copyright notice attached to the work, though the licensor and user of the work can always agree otherwise. If none is designated and no agreement is reached, then the mediation rules will be those identified in the notice of mediation sent to the licensee. If the matter progresses to arbitration, then unless otherwise stated in the copyright notice the rules that apply are the current Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (known as the UNCITRAL arbitration rules). The UNCITRAL rules are widely used by IGOs and others.

Note that Creative Commons does not endorse any particular mediation or arbitration rules. Creative Commons has published special deeds for the IGO 3.0 ported licenses that emphasize that disputes are resolved by mediation and arbitration. You should always take note before using a work by an IGO whether the license used is an IGO 3.0 ported license.

Do the 3.0 IGO ported licenses operate differently in other respects?

No, the only differences are the mediation and arbitration processes and the ability to cure a violation and regain your rights as a licensee. CC and the IGOs took great care to ensure that the interpretation of the licenses are no different otherwise than the 3.0 international licenses. The adjudicating body (the mediation or arbitration tribunal) will interpret the scope of the license and remaining obligations in accordance with general principles of international law. Exceptions and limitations remain unregulated by those licenses as well.

Note that the IGO 3.0 port is designed so that only IGOs as defined in the license are able to use mediation and arbitration. It is not available to anyone else using the licenses.

Examples of CC License Use by Intergovernmental Organizations

Commonwealth of Learning

European Cultural Foundation

European Funded

  • http://www.communia-project.eu/about COMMUNIA - The European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain, funded by the European Commission (the executive of the European Union), CC BY-SA (Unported).
  • European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) - CERN publishes its book catalog online as open data using the CC0 public domain dedication and the results of some Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments are published under various Creative Commons licenses.

European Space Agency

Inter-American Development Bank

  • The Inter-American Development Bank is requiring the adoption of Creative Commons by the organizations that receive funding from the Bank in the context of the FOMIN (Fondo Multiateral de Inversiones) initiatives, particularly the ICT4BUS, a fund that promotes the adoption of e-commerce in the American continent, which has financed more that thirty initiatives in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua and other Latin American countries. Banks require those initiative to use the GPL to license any software developed by organizations receiving support from the bank, and CC to license the documentation related with those computer programs, such as user manuals.

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

World Bank

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Intergovernmental_Organizations&oldid=116994"

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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Terms of Use - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Terms of Use

Terms of Use

Creative Commons Master Terms of Use

Effective as of 25 May 2018

1. General Information Regarding These Terms of Use

Master terms: Welcome, and thank you for your interest in Creative Commons (“Creative Commons,” “CC,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). Unless otherwise noted on a particular site or service, these master terms of use (“Master Terms”) apply to your use of all of the websites that Creative Commons Corporation operates. These include https://creativecommons.org, https://wiki.creativecommons.org, https://network.creativecommons.org, https://search.creativecommons.org, https://labs.creativecommons.org, http://openpolicynetwork.org, http://open4us.org, https://rightsback.org, http://teamopen.cc, and http://thepowerofopen.org, together with all other subdomains thereof, (collectively, the “Websites”). The Master Terms also apply to all products, information, and services provided through the Websites, including without limitation the license chooser, legal tools, the CCID service available at https://login.creativecommons.org/login (“CC Login Service”), and the CC Global Network community website (together with the Websites, the “Services”).

Creative Commons does not operate the website at http://ccmixter.org.

Additional terms: In addition to the Master Terms, your use of any Services may also be subject to specific terms applicable to a particular Service (“Additional Terms”). If there is any conflict between the Additional Terms and the Master Terms, then the Additional Terms apply in relation to the relevant Service.

Collectively, the Terms: The Master Terms, together with any Additional Terms, form a binding legal agreement between you and Creative Commons in relation to your use of the Services. Collectively, this legal agreement is referred to below as the “Terms.”

Human-readable summary of Sec 1: These terms, together with any special terms for particular websites, create a contract between you and Creative Commons. The contract governs your use of all websites operated by Creative Commons, unless a particular website indicates otherwise. These human-readable summaries of each section are not part of the contract, but are intended to help you understand its terms.

2. Your Agreement to the Terms

BY CLICKING “I ACCEPT” OR OTHERWISE ACCESSING OR USING ANY OF THE SERVICES (INCLUDING THE LICENSES, PUBLIC DOMAIN TOOLS, AND CHOOSERS), YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREED TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS. By clicking “I ACCEPT” or otherwise accessing or using any Services you also represent that you have the legal authority to accept the Terms on behalf of yourself and any party you represent in connection with your use of any Services. If you do not agree to the Terms, you are not authorized to use any Services. If you are an individual who is entering into these Terms on behalf of an entity, you represent and warrant that you have the power to bind that entity, and you hereby agree on that entity’s behalf to be bound by these Terms, with the terms “you,” and “your” applying to you, that entity, and other users accessing the Services on behalf of that entity.

Human-readable summary of Sec 2: Please read these terms and only use our sites and services if you agree to them.

3. Changes to the Terms

From time to time, Creative Commons may change, remove, or add to the Terms, and reserves the right to do so in its discretion. In that case, we will post updated Terms and indicate the date of revision. If we feel the modifications are material, we will make reasonable efforts to post a prominent notice on the relevant Website(s) and notify those of you with a current CC Login Service account via email. All new and/or revised Terms take effect immediately and apply to your use of the Services from that date on, except that material changes will take effect 30 days after the change is made and identified as material. Your continued use of any Services after new and/or revised Terms are effective indicates that you have read, understood, and agreed to those Terms.

Human-readable summary of Sec 3: These terms may change. When the changes are important, we will put a notice on the website. If you continue to use the sites after the changes are made, you agree to the changes.

Creative Commons is not a law firm, does not provide legal advice, and is not a substitute for a law firm. Sending us an email or using any of the Services, including the licenses, public domain tools, and choosers, does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship.

Human-readable summary of Sec 4: Some of us are lawyers, but we aren’t your lawyer. Please consult your own attorney if you need legal advice.

5. Content Available through the Services

Provided as-is: You acknowledge that Creative Commons does not make any representations or warranties about the material, data, and information, such as data files, text, computer software, code, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos, or other images (collectively, the “Content”) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Services. Under no circumstances is Creative Commons liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to: any infringing Content, any errors or omissions in Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, transmitted, linked from, or otherwise accessible through or made available via the Services. You understand that by using the Services, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, or objectionable.

You agree that you are solely responsible for your reuse of Content made available through the Services, including providing proper attribution. You should review the terms of the applicable license before you use the Content so that you know what you can and cannot do.

Licensing: CC-Owned Content: Other than the text of Creative Commons licenses, CC0, and other legal tools and the text of the deeds for all legal tools (all of which are made available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication), Creative Commons trademarks (subject to the Trademark Policy), and the software code, all Content on the Websites is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, unless otherwise marked. See the CC Policies page for more information.

CC-Owned Code: All of CC’s software code is free software; please check our code repository for the specific license on software you want to reuse.

Search Tools: On some of its Websites, Creative Commons provides website search tools, including CC Search, which return Content based on any license information our search tools are able to locate and interpret. Those search tools may return Content that is not CC licensed, and you should independently verify the terms of the license attached to any Content you intend to use.

Human-readable summary of Sec 5: We try our best to have useful information on our sites, but we cannot promise that everything is accurate or appropriate for your situation. Content on the site is licensed under CC BY 4.0 unless it says it is available under different terms. If you find content through a link on our websites, be sure to check the license terms before using it.

6. Content Supplied by You

Your responsibility: You represent, warrant, and agree that no Content posted or otherwise shared by you on or through any of the Services (“Your Content”), violates or infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights, breaches or conflicts with any obligation, such as a confidentiality obligation, or contains libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful material.

Licensing Your Content: You retain any copyright that you may have in Your Content. You hereby agree that Your Content: (a) is hereby licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and may be used under the terms of that license or any later version of a Creative Commons Attribution License, or (b) is in the public domain (such as Content that is not copyrightable or Content you make available under CC0), or (c) if not owned by you, (i) is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License or (ii) is a media file that is available under any Creative Commons license or that you are authorized by law to post or share through any of the Services, such as under the fair use doctrine, and that is prominently marked as being subject to third party copyright. All of Your Content must be appropriately marked with licensing (or other permission status such as fair use) and attribution information.

Removal: Creative Commons may, but is not obligated to, review Your Content and may delete or remove Your Content (without notice) from any of the Services in its sole discretion. Removal of any of Your Content from the Services (by you or Creative Commons) does not impact any rights you granted in Your Content under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Human-readable summary of Sec 6: We do not take any ownership of your content when you post it on our sites. If you post content you own, you agree it can be used under the terms of CC BY 4.0 or any future version of that license. If you do not own the content, then you should not post it unless it is in the public domain or licensed CC BY 4.0, except that you may also post pictures and videos if you are authorized to use them under law (e.g., fair use) or if they are available under any CC license. You must note that information on the file when you upload it. You are responsible for any content you upload to our sites.

7. Participating in the CCGN and Community: Registered Users

By registering for an account through any of the Services, including securing a CC Login Service account, or applying for membership to the CCGN, you represent and warrant that you are the age of majority in your jurisdiction (typically age 18). Services offered to registered users are provided subject to these Master Terms, the CC Privacy Policy, and any Additional Terms specified on the relevant Website(s), all of which are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms.

Registration: You agree to (a) only provide accurate and current information about yourself (though use of an alias or nickname in lieu of your legal name is encouraged in connection with the CC Login Service), (b) maintain the security of your passwords and identification, (c) promptly update the email address listed in connection with your account to keep it accurate so that we can contact you, and (d) be fully responsible for all uses of your account. You must not set up an account on behalf of another individual or entity unless you are authorized to do so.

No Membership in CC: Creating a CC Login Service account or using any of the related Websites or Services, including becoming a member of the CCGN, does not and shall not be deemed to make you a member, shareholder or affiliate of Creative Commons for any purposes whatsoever, nor shall you have any of the rights of statutory members as defined in Sections 2(3) and 3 of Chapter 180 of the General Laws of Massachusetts or any other law.

Termination: Creative Commons reserves the right to modify or discontinue your account or your membership in the CCGN at any time for any reason or no reason at all.

Human-readable summary of Sec 7: Please do not register for an account on our sites unless you are 18 years old. CC has the right to end your account at any time. You are responsible for use of your account. And of course, please do not set up an account for someone else unless you have permission to do so. Setting up an account doesn’t make you a member of CC.

8. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to engage in any of the following activities:

1. Violating laws and rights:

  • You may not (a) use any Service for any illegal purpose or in violation of any local, state, national, or international laws, (b) violate or encourage others to violate any right of or obligation to a third party, including by infringing, misappropriating, or violating intellectual property, confidentiality, or privacy rights.

2. Solicitation:

  • You may not use the Services or any information provided through the Services for the transmission of advertising or promotional materials, including junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unsolicited or unwelcome solicitation.

3. Disruption:

  • You may not use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Services, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Services; including by (a) uploading or otherwise disseminating any virus, adware, spyware, worm or other malicious code, or (b) interfering with or disrupting any network, equipment, or server connected to or used to provide any of the Services, or violating any regulation, policy, or procedure of any network, equipment, or server.

4. Harming others:

  • You may not post or transmit Content on or through the Services that is harmful, offensive, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, defamatory, hateful or otherwise discriminatory, false or misleading, or incites an illegal act;
  • You may not intimidate or harass another through the Services; and, you may not post or transmit any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age on or through the Services.

5. Impersonation or unauthorized access:

  • You may not impersonate another person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity when using the Services;
  • You may not use or attempt to use another’s account or personal information without authorization; and
  • You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services, or the computer systems or networks connected to the Services, through hacking password mining or any other means.

Human-readable summary of Sec 8: Play nice. Be yourself. Don’t break the law or be disruptive.

9. Creative Commons Global Network (“CCGN”)

By submitting your application to become a member of the CCGN at network.creativecommons.org, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and, in the event you are accepted for membership, agree to be bound by the CCGN Charter, including the Code of Conduct and the policies referenced and incorporated therein. If you are admitted to the CCGN, these terms and the CCGN Charter shall govern your use of and participation in the CCGN, including your participation in any forum operated by the CCGN, such as platforms, chapters, and working groups. Note that your participation in such fora may also be governed by additional rules and guidelines for doing so. Please see CC’s Privacy Policy for more information about how your information (as an applicant, member, and voucher) will be used.

Human-readable summary of Sec 9: When you join the CCGN, you agree to certain policies. Please read them before you apply. 

10. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS OFFERS THE SERVICES (INCLUDING ALL CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES) AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE SERVICES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL BE ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY SERVERS USED BY CC ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION REGARDING USE OF THE CONTENT AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES IN TERMS OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE.

Human-readable summary of Sec 10: CC does not make any guarantees about the sites, services, or content available on the sites.

11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL CREATIVE COMMONS BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, ACTUAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF REVENUE OR INCOME, LOST PROFITS, PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR SIMILAR DAMAGES SUFFERED OR INCURRED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY THAT ARISE IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES (OR THE TERMINATION THEREOF FOR ANY REASON), EVEN IF CREATIVE COMMONS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE WHATSOEVER IN ANY MANNER FOR ANY CONTENT POSTED ON OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES (INCLUDING CLAIMS OF INFRINGEMENT RELATING TO THAT CONTENT), FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, OR FOR THE CONDUCT OF THIRD PARTIES ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES.

Certain jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply to you. IN THESE JURISDICTIONS, THE FOREGOING EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS WILL BE ENFORCED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

Human-readable summary of Sec 11: CC is not responsible for the content on the sites, your use of our services, or for the conduct of others on our sites.

12. Indemnification

To the extent authorized by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Creative Commons, its employees, officers, directors, affiliates, and agents from and against any and all claims, losses, expenses, damages, and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting directly or indirectly from or arising out of (a) your violation of the Terms, (b) your use of any of the Services, and/or (c) the Content you make available on any of the Services.

Human-readable summary of Sec 12: If something happens because you violate these terms, because of your use of the services, or because of the content you post on the sites, you agree to repay CC for the damage it causes.

13. Privacy Policy

Creative Commons is committed to responsibly handling the information and data we collect through our Services in compliance with our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms. Please review the Privacy Policy so you are aware of how we collect and use your personal information.

Human-readable summary of Sec 13: Please read our Privacy Policy. It is part of these terms, too.

14. Trademark Policy

CC’s name, logos, icons, and other trademarks may only be used in accordance with our Trademark Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms. Please review the Trademark Policy so you understand how CC’s trademarks may be used.

Human-readable summary of Sec 14: Please read our Trademark Policy. It is part of these terms, too.

Creative Commons respects copyright, and we prohibit users of the Services from submitting, uploading, posting, or otherwise transmitting any Content on the Services that violates another person’s proprietary rights.

To report allegedly infringing Content hosted on a website owned or controlled by CC, send a Notice of Infringing Materials as set out in CC’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Notice & Takedown Procedure.

Please note that Creative Commons does not host the Content made available through CC Search. You should contact the web site or service hosting the Content to have it removed.

Human-readable summary of Sec 15: Please let us know if you find infringing content on our websites.

16. Termination

By Creative Commons: Creative Commons may modify, suspend, or terminate the operation of, or access to, all or any portion of the Services at any time for any reason. Additionally, your individual access to, and use of, the Services may be terminated by Creative Commons at any time and for any reason.

By you: If you wish to terminate this agreement, you may immediately stop accessing or using the Services at any time.

Automatic upon breach: Your right to access and use the Services (including use of your CC Login Service account) automatically upon your breach of any of the Terms. For the avoidance of doubt, termination of the Terms does not require you to remove or delete any reference to previously-applied CC legal tools from your own Content.

Survival: The disclaimer of warranties, the limitation of liability, and the jurisdiction and applicable law provisions will survive any termination. The license grants applicable to Your Content are not impacted by the termination of the Terms and shall continue in effect subject to the terms of the applicable license. Your warranties and indemnification obligations will survive for one year after termination.

Human-readable summary of Sec 16: If you violate these terms, you may no longer use our sites.

17. Miscellaneous Terms

Choice of law: The Terms are governed by and construed by the laws of the State of California in the United States, not including its choice of law rules.

Dispute resolution: The parties agree that any disputes between Creative Commons and you concerning these Terms, and/or any of the Services may only brought in a federal or state court of competent jurisdiction sitting in the Northern District of California, and you hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of such court.

  • If you are an authorized agent of a government or intergovernmental entity using the Services in your official capacity, including an authorized agent of the federal, state, or local government in the United States, and you are legally restricted from accepting the controlling law, jurisdiction, or venue clauses above, then those clauses do not apply to you. For any such U.S. federal government entities, these Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the laws of the United States of America (without reference to conflict of laws) and, in the absence of federal law and to the extent permitted under federal law, the laws of the State of California (excluding its choice of law rules).

No waiver: Either party’s failure to insist on or enforce strict performance of any of the Terms will not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right.

Severability: If any part of the Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by any law or regulation or final determination of a competent court or tribunal, that provision will be deemed severable and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.

No agency relationship: The parties agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Creative Commons as a result of the Terms or from your use of any of the Services.

Integration: These Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Creative Commons relating to this subject matter and supersede any and all prior communications and/or agreements between you and Creative Commons relating to access and use of the Services.

Human-readable summary of Sec 17: If there is a lawsuit arising from these terms, it should be in California and governed by California law. We are glad you use our sites, but this agreement does not mean we are partners.

Note about Reusing these Terms of Use.

The Creative Commons Terms of Use are dedicated to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication. You are free to use and adapt these Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms for your own purposes. However, please keep in mind that these Terms may not be completely suitable for your situation. Creative Commons strongly encourages you to seek the advice of your own attorney before repurposing these Terms on your own site.

#####EOF##### Use & remix - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Use & remix

Use & remix

One goal of Creative Commons is to increase the amount of openly licensed creativity in “the commons” — the body of work freely available for legal use, sharing, repurposing, and remixing. Through the use of CC licenses, millions of people around the world have made their photos, videos, writing, music, and other creative content available for any member of the public to use.

Search the Commons

Click here to find CC licensed content via search services provided by other independent organizations.

Attributing Sources

You can use CC-licensed materials as long as you follow the license conditions. One condition of all CC licenses is attribution. Here is an example of an ideal attribution of a CC-licensed image by Flickr user Sixteen Miles of String:

CC Birthday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” by Timothy Vollmer is licensed under CC BY 2.0

More information on attribution best practices.

The growing commons

1.1 billion works and counting. Explore these featured Creative Commons Licensed resources below — from literary works, to videos, photos, audio, open education, scientific research and more! Or you can share your work, and help light up the global commons!

#####EOF##### Share your work - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work

Share your work

Use Creative Commons tools to help share your work. Our free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give your permission to share and use your creative work— on conditions of your choice. You can adopt one of our licenses by sharing on a platform, or choosing a license below.

Choose a license

This chooser helps you determine which Creative Commons License is right for you in a few easy steps. If you are new to Creative Commons, you may also want to read Licensing Considerations before you get started.

Get Started

 

Share your work on a Creative Commons platform

We work with platforms like Wikipedia, Flickr, and Vimeo to provide their users with the option of licensing works with CC licenses. Through these platforms, over 1.4 billion works have been shared and counting!

  • flickr
  • bandcamp
  • wikipedia
  • youtube
  • 500
  • internet_archive
  • vimeo
  • wikimedia
  • fma
  • skills_commons
  • europeana
  • tribe_of_noise
  • jamendo
  • MIT
  • PLOS

What our licenses do

Our licenses enable collaboration, growth, and generosity in a variety of media.

#####EOF##### Contact - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Contact

Contact

Many questions are answered in our FAQ and you can find out more about our global affiliate network here. If you are unable to find your answer via our FAQ or website please be in touch regarding our website, general information or press at: info@creativecommons.org.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Mailing Address and phone number

Please note: we are a distributed team working all over the world. We don’t have an office, but if you need to mail us correspondence, please send it to:

Creative Commons
PO Box 1866
Mountain View, CA 94042
USA

Or if you would like to mail us a donation, please send it to this address instead:

Creative Commons Corporation
P. O. Box 741107
Los Angeles, CA 90074-1107

Our phone number is:

+1415-429-6753

The best way to contact us is to write to info@creativecommons.org.

Reporting bugs and problems with a Creative Commons website, license, wiki or project webpage

You can write to us using the form above, or you can file an issue on GitHub.

 

Get Involved

There are numerous ways to connect with CC. Learn more

Copyright infringement notifications

If you have reason to believe that any material or activity on a site controlled or operated by Creative Commons (such as creativecommons.org or wiki.creativecommons.org is infringing of the right(s) owned by you or someone else, for whom you have authority to act, please follow our DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure.

Complaints about financial impropriety and other misconduct

As a nonprofit entity, the integrity of CC’s financial information is paramount. We have adopted Codes of Conduct that prohibit financial impropriety and protect whistle blowers who bring such irregularities to our attention. Additionally, we take seriously other misconduct that may involve the violation of our policies including, but not limited to, harassment.

If you are aware of any conduct prohibited by law or by our policies, you are encouraged to make a complaint, anonymously if you wish, to the members of the company’s Audit Committee. The email address for such complaints is audit@creativecommons.org which will forward your message automatically to the members of the Audit Committee. The Committee members are identified on our Board page. You may also submit a complaint by post or fax to the attention of “Audit Committee” at our Mountain View address.

Creative Commons is a Massachusetts-chartered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable corporation. For more information, see the corporate charter, by-laws, most recent tax return and most recent audited financial statement.

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#####EOF##### Privacy Policy - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

1. Preamble

This Privacy Policy explains the collection, use, processing, transferring and disclosure of personal information by Creative Commons Corporation (“CC” or “Creative Commons”), a Massachusetts charitable organization.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and made part of Creative Commons Master Terms of Use (“Master Terms”) located at https://creativecommons.org/terms.

Unless otherwise noted on a particular website or service hosted by Creative Commons, this Privacy Policy applies to your use of all websites that Creative Commons operates. These include https://creativecommons.org, https://wiki.creativecommons.org, https://network.creativecommons.org, https://search.creativecommons.org, https://labs.creativecommons.org, http://openpolicynetwork.org, http://open4us.org, https://rightsback.org, http://teamopen.cc, and http://thepowerofopen.org, together with all other subdomains thereof, (collectively, the “Websites”). This Privacy Policy also applies to all products, information, and services provided through the Websites and/or hosted on our servers, including without limitation the license chooser, legal tools, (including license buttons embedded on third party websites), search engine, the CC Login Services (defined below), and the CC Global Network community website (together with the Websites, the “Services”).

Please note that Creative Commons does not operate the website at http://ccmixter.org.

In addition, supplemental Privacy Policy terms (“Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms”) may apply to a particular Service, such as rightsback.org (https://rightsback.org/privacy-policy/). All such Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms will be accessible for you to read either within, or through your use of, that particular Service.

By accessing or using any of the Services, you are accepting and agreeing to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

2. Our Principles

Creative Commons has designed this policy to be consistent with the following principles:

  • Privacy policies should be human readable and easy to find.
  • Data collection, storage, and processing should be simplified as much as possible to enhance security, ensure consistency, and make the practices easy for users to understand.
  • Data practices should always meet the reasonable expectations of users.

3. Personal Information CC Collects and How it is Used

As used in this policy, “personal information” means information that would allow someone to identify you, including your name, email address, IP address, or other information from which someone could deduce your identity.

CC collects and uses personal information in the following ways:

Website and Fundraising Analytics: When you visit our Websites or use our Services, CC collects some information about your activities through tools such as Google Analytics and through our server logs. The type of information that we collect focuses on general information such as country or city where you are located, pages visited, time spent on pages, heat-map of visitors’ activity on the site, information about the browser you are using, etc. CC collects and uses this information pursuant to our legitimate interest in maintaining and enhancing the security and utility of our Services. The information we gather and process is used in the aggregate to spot trends without deliberately identifying individuals, except in cases where you affirmatively opt-in to providing us more individualized feedback about our Services, or where you engage in a transaction with Creative Commons by donating money, purchasing merchandise, or getting a ticket for an event or program. In cases where you donate, purchase merchandise, or get a ticket for an event or program, CC retains certain information about your visit to the Services, including information about the referral site that led you to our Services, pursuant to its legitimate interest in understanding its community of supporters for fundraising purposes, and this information is stored in connection with other personal information you provide to CC.

Note that you can learn about Google’s practices in connection with its analytics services and how to opt out of it by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. If you would like to opt out of CC’s fundraising analytics, please contact legal@creativecommons.org with your request.

Information from Cookies: We and our service providers (for example, Google Analytics as described above) may collect information using cookies or similar technologies for the purposes described above and below. Cookies are pieces of information that are stored by your browser on the hard drive or memory of your computer or other Internet access device.  Cookies may enable us to personalize your experience on the Services, maintain a persistent session, passively collect demographic information about your computer, and monitor advertisements and other activities. The Websites may use different kinds of cookies and other types of local storage (such as browser-based or plugin-based local storage).

Log-In Services: When you register to obtain a user account on any of the Services (any such person, a “Registered User”), including but not limited to the CCID service available at https://login.creativecommons.org/login, you will be asked to provide personal information to create your account and establish a password and profile. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in establishing and maintaining your account providing you with the features we provide Registered Users. We may use your email address to contact you regarding changes to this policy or other applicable policies. The name or nickname you provide in connection with your account may be used to attribute you in connection with any content you submit to any Service. In addition, whenever you use a CC Login Service to log into a Website or use the Services, our servers keep a plain text log of the Websites you visit and when you visit them.

Events: When you sign up for an event hosted or supported by Creative Commons, you will be asked to provide some personal information, including your name, email address, and other information as needed. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in organizing and running the relevant event. We may share your personal information with vendors, third party contractors, partner organizations, and volunteers for the purpose of organizing and running the event and related activities.

Emails and Newsletters: When you sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons or otherwise subscribe to one of our mailing lists, you will be asked to provide some personal information. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in providing news and updates to, and collaborating with, its supporters and volunteers. You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each newsletter.

Email Analytics: When you receive communications from CC after signing up for the CC newsletter, campaign updates, or other ongoing email communications from CC, we use analytics to track whether you open the mail, click on the links, and otherwise interact with what we send. You may opt out of this tracking by choosing to get plain-text emails from CC. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in understanding the interests of its community of supporters and volunteers in order to provide more relevant news and updates. 

Donations: When you donate money to Creative Commons, purchase merchandise at https://store.creativecommons.org/, or pay for attendance at an event or participation in the CC Certificate program or any other program run by Creative Commons, you will be asked to provide personal information, including payment information. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in raising funds to ensure the sustainability of our nonprofit organization and, where applicable, to provide you with the merchandise, event, or program you purchased.

Creative Commons Global Network (“CCGN”) Membership: In connection with your application for CCGN membership, you will be required to provide certain personal information. CC collects and uses that personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in evaluating applications for CCGN membership and for helping to manage the CCGN once you are admitted.

In connection with your application you will be required to have two CCGN members provide information about you in order to vouch for you as a potential member of the CCGN. The personal information you provide with your application will be shared with the individuals you select to vouch for you, and with those reviewing your application, including the Membership Council whose members include people not employed by Creative Commons and who are located in various countries around the world.

If you vouch for someone’s application to the CCGN, your personal information will be shared with those reviewing the application, including the Membership Council, and if you provide a positive vouching statement, that statement will be shared with the applicant if and when they are admitted for membership.

If you are admitted to membership in the CCGN, you will be given a public profile page, editable by you, which will be pre-populated with certain information you provide with your application. Your name, areas of interest, images and other content you upload will be publicly displayed to anyone who visits the site while logged in with their CCID. All other personal information that you submit to your profile page, including your biographical information, email address, languages spoken, country of residence, social media account information or URL details will be displayed only to CC and CCGN members. Further, if you are admitted, your information will be transferred to and from the various fora that further the CC mission and enable the CCGN, including country chapters, platforms, working groups, and the Membership Council, for purposes of governance participation, activity interaction, and other purposes related to the mission, vision, and activities of CC.

If your CCGN membership application is rejected, the personal information that was collected from you and from the voucher will be deleted 21 days after CC sends out the decision, with the exception of the voucher’s vote or abstention (e.g., vouch for applicant / does not vouch for applicant).

Funding and Participation Opportunities: When you apply for a scholarship, grant, or fellowship from Creative Commons, or when you apply to be selected to participate in one of our other programs, CC will collect certain personal information from you in order to evaluate your application and process your funding as necessary. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in providing funding and participation opportunities to its supporters and volunteers and in order to comply with its legal obligations under applicable law. We will share that information with the people who are designated to select participants in, and help manage, those programs, which may include people not employed by Creative Commons.

Other Voluntarily Provided Information: When you provide feedback to Creative Commons, sign a petition distributed by CC, or otherwise submit personal information to Creative Commons, CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in better understanding our community of supporters and volunteers and in furtherance of the particular program or activity to which you provided feedback or other input.

License/Tool Selection . We use the personal information you provide to us as part of your selection of one of our licenses/tools to provide you the RDF, html, and the uniform resource locator that correspond to the license/tool you selected. Some older versions of the license chooser enable Creative Commons to send you this information via email. In those cases, your email address is expunged after this email has been sent. We may use all of this information to maintain usage data about our licenses/tools.

4. Retention of Personal Information

The majority of the personal information collected and used as explained in Section 3 above is aggregated and stored in a central database provided by a third party service provider. CC aggregates this data pursuant to its legitimate interest in having information stored in a single location to minimize complexity, increase consistency in internal practices, better understand its community of supporters and volunteers, and enhance the security of the data.  

CC erases the web browser logs described above on a regular, rolling basis. We generally retain other personal information for the purposes for which it was collected. This may mean that we retain your personal information indefinitely in some cases.

5. Access to Your Personal Information

You are generally entitled to access and transfer to a third party any personal information that Creative Commons holds and to have inaccurate data corrected or removed to the extent CC still maintains it. In certain circumstances, you also may have the right to object or restrict for legitimate reasons to the processing or transfer of personal information. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please write to legal@creativecommons.org explaining your request. You also have the right to go directly to the relevant supervisory or legal authority, but we encourage you to contact us so that we may resolve your concerns directly as best we can.

6. Disclosure of Your Personal Information

CC does not disclose personal information to third parties except as specified elsewhere in this policy and in the following instances:

  1. Creative Commons may share personal information with our contractors and service providers in order to undertake the activities described in Section 3.  
  2. We may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Master Terms and this Privacy Policy; (c) enforce our Charter, including the Code of Conduct and policies contained and incorporated therein, or (d) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order.

7. Security of Your Personal Information

Creative Commons has implemented reasonable physical, technical, and organizational security measures for personal information that Creative Commons processes against accidental or unlawful destruction, or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, in compliance with applicable law. However, no website can fully eliminate security risks. Third parties may circumvent our security measures to unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. If any data breach occurs, we will post a reasonably prominent notice to the Websites and comply with all other applicable data privacy requirements including, when required, personal notice to you if you have provided and we have maintained an email address for you.

The CC Login Services account systems have security risks in addition to those described above. Among other things, they are vulnerable to DNS attacks, and using any CC Login Service may increase the risk of phishing.

8. Children

The Services are not directed at children under the age of 13. Consistent with the U.S. federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without requiring parental consent. Our Master Terms specifically prohibit anyone using our Services from submitting any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age. Any person who provides their personal information to CC through the Services represents that they are 13 years of age or older.

9. Third Party Service Providers

Creative Commons uses many third party service providers in connection with the Services, including website hosting services, database management, credit card processing, and many more. Some of these service providers may place session cookies on your computer, and they may collect and store your personal information on our behalf in accordance with the data practices and purposes explained above in Section 3.

10. Third Party Sites

The Services may provide links to a wide variety of third party websites. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party websites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other websites.

11. Location of Services

If you are accessing or using the Services in regions with laws governing data collection, processing, transfer and use, please note that when we use and share your data as specified in this policy, we may transfer your information to recipients in countries other than the country in which the information was originally collected. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information.

The Services are currently hosted in the United States and the United Kingdom, which means your personal information may be located on servers in the United States and/or the United Kingdom.  This may change from time to time.  The majority of contractors that Creative Commons is using as of the effective date of this Privacy Policy are located in the United States and in Canada, but this may change from time to time.

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will revise the Effective Date below. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting, using, processing and transferring the personal information we collect.

Effective Date: 2 April 2019.

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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

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Creative Commons > Policies

Policies

Creative Commons maintains and publishes policies that apply to the use of our websites, content and software that we publish, our trademarks, and to those participating in the Creative Commons Global Network, including Individual and Institutional Members, as well as non-Members who participate in CC projects around the world. Note that some of these policies are maintained on other website pages but can be viewed by clicking on the relevant link below.

The following policies are applicable to anyone who uses our websites.

The Creative Commons Trademark Policy applies to anyone who uses the CC trademarks.

When you participate in the Creative Commons Global Network (“CCGN”) as a member or non-member, in addition to the generally applicable policies on this page, the following legal policies apply to you as you engage with CC and the network:

CC’s Licensing Statement for Content and Software Code

Other than the Creative Commons trademarks (licensed subject to the Trademark Policy below) and the text of Creative Commons legal tools and human-readable Commons deeds (dedicated to the public domain as specified below), all content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license unless otherwise marked.

Software: All of the software code we create is free software. Please check our code repository for the specific license that applies to software code you wish to use.
Legal text (we call this legal code) and Commons deeds: Creative Commons makes the legal code of its licenses and the CC0 Public Domain Dedication available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. CC also makes the Commons deeds associated with its licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication, and the Public Domain Mark available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. This allows anyone to reuse those texts for any purpose; however, CC reserves fully and unconditionally all trademark and branding rights associated with the licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication, and the Commons deeds. See the Trademark Policy below for more detail.

Creative Commons Trademark Policy

Trademarks are words, graphic designs, or other indicia that identify the source of a product or service. Creative Commons uses a variety of trademarks. Some Creative Commons trademarks serve the purpose of (i) communicating the type of legal tool chosen by the rights holder and/or (ii) indicating that the creator has applied a Creative Commons license to her work. Our registered trademarks and other trademarks include CREATIVE COMMONS (regardless of stylization, capitalization, translation, or other presentation), CC (including the CC in a circle logo (the “CC Logo”) and CC standing alone), CC+ (within a circle or standing alone) and CCPlus, CC0, all of the Creative Commons license and public domain buttons and icons, and any combination of the foregoing, whether integrated into a larger whole or standing alone. This also includes all of the CC trademarks incorporated into Unicode and any other similar standard.

You are authorized to use our trademarks subject to this Trademark Policy, and only on the further condition that you download images of the trademarks directly from our website or apply them through an authorized provider, including software that incorporates the trademarks in Unicode. You are not authorized to use any modified versions of our trademarks, except that you may use a different color for the CC logo and its background so long as the two colors chosen have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1.

Creative Commons retains the right to revoke any trademark license for any reason or for no specified reason. Creative Commons is particularly likely to revoke a license if, in its sole discretion, it finds that your use of the trademark is likely to bring disrepute to Creative Commons or any of its trademarks, or confuses the public. For the avoidance of doubt, you do not need our permission to use our corporate logo for referential use (e.g., to refer to Creative Commons as an organization), provided that such use does not imply endorsement by or association with Creative Commons.

For the avoidance of doubt, no member of the CC affiliate network or of the CC Global Network, including chapters, is authorized to use CC’s trademarks except in compliance with this policy. This includes, without limitation, that no use of CC trademarks may be used for projects or activities that are not expressly approved in advance by Creative Commons (via legal@creativecommons.org). Creative Commons intends to update these policies in advance of the CC Global Summit 2018, and once updated will apply to all members of the CC Global Network.

Modification of CC Licenses: To prevent confusion and maintain consistency, you are not allowed to use CREATIVE COMMONS, CC, the CC Logo, or any other Creative Commons trademarks with modified versions of any of our legal tools or Commons deeds, including modifications that do not modify the legal code directly but that further restrict or condition the rights granted by the particular legal tool. These modifications are often contained in a website’s terms of use, and where they are present you may not suggest that you are offering works under a Creative Commons legal tool. For the avoidance of doubt, you may not use any CC trademarks with unofficial language translations of CC licenses. See this page for more information.

Creative Commons Public Copyright License Marks: Creative Commons licenses the use of its public copyright license marks, which include the CC Logo, on the conditions that you use the marks solely to describe the Creative Commons license that applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or a hyperlink to the corresponding Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Public Domain Dedication Marks: Creative Commons licenses the use of its public domain dedication marks, on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe that the CC0 Public Domain Dedication applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or a hyperlink to the Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Public Domain Mark: Creative Commons licenses the use of its trademarked Public Domain Mark badge on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe that the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the Public Domain Mark on the Creative Commons server.

Creative Commons License Buttons and Icons: Creative Commons licenses the use of its button marks that describe a particular legal tool and its icon marks that describe a key license element, such as BY, NC, ND, and SA, on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe the Creative Commons legal tool that applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the relevant Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Legacy marks: Creative Commons has retired some of its prior legal tools, all of which have associated trademarks, such as the Developing Nations License, the Sampling License, and Founder’s Copyright. Although these tools have been retired and are no longer recommended for use, they are still legally effective as to works to which they are applied. Therefore, those trademarks may only be used under the terms and conditions of this Trademark Policy. Creative Commons licenses the use of its legacy marks on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe the Creative Commons legal tool that applies to the particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the relevant Commons deed on the Creative Commons server. Note that legacy marks are not available for download on our website.

Additional permissions: In addition to the permissions granted in advance to the public as set forth above, Creative Commons may agree to grant additional permissions upon request. Please submit any such request to legal@creativecommons.org. Except as specifically stated above or otherwise set forth in a written agreement with you, no additional permissions are granted.

Merchandising Policy: If you would like to use the Creative Commons or other CC trademarks on clothing or other merchandise, you must first receive permission from Creative Commons. Please submit your request to legal@creativecommons.org.

CCGN Internet Services Policy

This Policy governs the operation of websites, social media accounts, and mailing lists for CC Chapters in the Creative Commons Global Network.

Chapter Websites

To avoid confusion, all Chapters should have one principal public source of online information about the Chapter and its activities. Chapters can choose to use a subdomain provided and hosted by CC HQ, or Chapters can use a domain name of their own and host/manage the site themselves. If Chapters use their own domain name, the subdomain will be forwarded, so that everyone coming to creativecommons.org can find the site.

                       Subdomains: Creative Commons will establish a subdomain on its main website for each Chapter. The sub-domain will consist of xx.creativecommons.org, where xx is the top-level domain extension for the Project’s jurisdiction (e.g., ca.creativecommons.org). The subdomain will be maintained by CC HQ as part of a WordPress multisite setup. Each Chapter is asked to designate at least one representative to be on point to correspond with CC about administrator access privileges to the subdomain.

                       Top-Level Domain Names (“TLDs”) and Country Code Top-Level Domains (“ccTLD”): Chapters may decide to use a separate domain name. We ask that such website holders hold the domain name and website in trust for Creative Commons, and add Creative Commons as a technical contact on the WHOIS for the site. If, at any time, the Chapter decides that the website and domain should be operated by another person or institution or retired, the website holder must cooperate in the transfer or lapse of the website and domain, as applicable. Creative Commons reserves the right to decide that a TLD must be transferred to Creative Commons or shut down in order to avoid trademark confusion, if a Chapter was unable to continue operating, or for any other reason.

Chapter Website Content

All website content on Chapter Websites should be made available under a CC license, ideally CC BY 4.0 or CC0. Chapters should establish their own guidelines for continued operation and updating of their Chapter Website, consistent with the Chapter Guidelines (https://github.com/creativecommons/global-network-strategy/blob/master/docs/chapters-guidelines.md) and other CC policies. All Chapter Websites must include a prominent disclaimer that the website does not provide legal advice. CC reserves the right to request the removal of any content that fails (in CC’s sole discretion) to comply with this or other CC policies.

Chapter Website Administration

As part of the main Creative Commons website, the subdomains are managed by Creative Commons and therefore subject to all of the policies of the CC site, including the DMCA policy, terms of service, and privacy policy. Every participant in a Chapter agrees to comply with all such policies and will take any actions requested by CC in order to ensure compliance. Unlike subdomains, Chapters that choose to operate TLDs in accordance with the above are alone responsible for ensuring that they establish and maintain terms of service, a privacy policy, and any other policies necessary to comply with applicable laws, including copyright and data privacy laws.

Chapter Social Media Accounts

Chapters may establish and maintain a single account on a reasonable number of public-facing social media platforms on behalf of the Chapter. The Chapter should track the accounts, platforms, and login information as they are established, and alert CC as to which accounts it has and who operates them on behalf of the Chapter. The Chapter is responsible for ensuring consistency and quality in the content and operation of those accounts, and may establish guidelines in accordance with the Chapter Guidelines (https://github.com/creativecommons/global-network-strategy/blob/master/docs/chapters-standards.md) to achieve this.

Chapter Mailing Lists

If a Chapter wants to set up and maintain a mailing list for its activities, the Chapter may use the services provided by Creative Commons. Whether or not using CC-provided mailing lists, everyone participating in a Chapter must comply with data privacy laws when dealing with participant email addresses and other personal information.

Chapter Github Repositories

Each Chapter may request that Creative Commons open one repository on their behalf on CC’s organization account on Github. The Chapter is responsible for ensuring that the repository is used in accordance with Github terms and applicable law.

Note: This policy may be updated from time to time following consultation and collaboration with the Global Network Council.

Chapter Logo Policy

Every CC Chapter around the world, once established in accordance with the Charter and other applicable rules and guidelines, may create a single logo to designate their particular country chapter (“Chapter Logo”). The Chapter Logo must include our “Creative Commons” name and/or our CC in a circle logo in their original font and style.

Chapter Logo Approval: The Chapter Lead must submit the Chapter Logo to legal@creativecommons.org for approval. For the avoidance of doubt, this approval requirement applies even in cases where a Chapter selects a logo that was previously used in connection with a CC affiliate team under the prior network governance model.

Use of the Chapter Logo: We give you permission to use the approved Chapter Logo of the CC Chapter in which you are a participant, solely in order to promote and further the CC-related work done by your CC Chapter consistent with the Charter [https://creativecommons.org/network/charter/], the rules established by the CC Global Network Council, and the policies and positions established by Creative Commons. We recognize that you and the other individuals and institutions involved in your CC Chapter are also engaged in jobs, projects, and activities that are tangentially or unrelated to CC.  For the avoidance of doubt, you and others involved in the CC Chapter are not entitled to use the Chapter Logo for any purposes other than those stated above.

We will continue to work with you to ensure that you and others involved in the CC Chapter use the Chapter Logo in a manner consistent with the principles and policies of CC.  You agree to fully cooperate with and take any actions requested by CC relating to all usage of the Chapter Logo by anyone involved in your CC Chapter. It is understood that CC can end this permission at any time in its sole discretion, including if at any time your status as a participant ends, the CC Chapter becomes inactive, or if you or others involved in the CC Chapter fail to cooperate with or adhere to the policies of CC.  

You further agree to comply with any policies set forth by your Chapter as to how the Chapter Logo may or may not be used. In the event of a conflict between a guideline set forth by your Chapter and a policy of Creative Commons, the Creative Commons policy will govern.

Ownership of the Chapter Logo: All uses of the Chapter Logo will inure solely to Creative Commons. You and the others involved in your CC Chapter will obtain no ownership or other rights to the Chapter Logo.  You agree not to contest, oppose, impair, or challenge CC’s ownership of the Chapter Logos or any of its other trademarks. You will not register or attempt to register the Chapter Logo as a trademark in any jurisdiction and will not oppose CC’s registration or use of the Chapter Logo.

Page last updated: 29 May 2018

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Creative Commons > Website Icons

Website Icons

masksMasks by Creative Stall licensed under CC BY 3.0 is used to represent Arts & Culture in the featured works on the homepage

 

searchSearch Applications by Rohith M S licensed under CC BY 3.0 is used to represent Use & remix in the quicklinks band on the homepage

 

scaleJustice by Creative Stall licensed under CC BY 3.0 is used to represent Legal Tools and Licenses

 

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#####EOF##### License Versions - Creative Commons

License Versions

From Creative Commons
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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

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#####EOF##### What we do - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do

What we do

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons helps you legally share your knowledge and creativity to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world. We unlock the full potential of the internet to drive a new era of development, growth and productivity.

With a network of staff, board, and affiliates around the world, Creative Commons provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses to make a simple and standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work–on conditions of your choice.

Learn more about our programs
Check out our public reports and financials

To learn more about Creative Commons and our funding agreements, please see our Contributions Policy

Ryan Merkley, CEO
Our work is to build a vibrant, usable commons, powered by collaboration and gratitude.
Ryan Merkley, CEO

Global Affiliate Network

Creative Commons Affiliate Network includes over 500 researchers, activists, legal, education and policy advocates, and volunteers who serve as CC representatives in over 85 countries. Working alongside non-governmental institutions, universities, and public agencies, CC affiliates employ region-specific approaches to copyright and intellectual property that help solve local and global challenges.

Learn more about our Affiliate Network

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Creative Commons Platforms

We work with the following organizations that are leaders in the content and knowledge sharing movement. Through these platforms, over 1.4 billion works have been shared and counting!

  • flickr
  • bandcamp
  • wikipedia
  • youtube
  • internet_archive
  • vimeo
  • wikimedia
  • fma
  • skills_commons
  • boundless
  • europeana
  • tribe_of_noise
  • jamendo
  • MIT
  • PLOS

Our Programs

Our work spans a variety of different areas and partners working to create a more vibrant commons.

#####EOF##### When we share, everyone wins - Creative Commons

When we share, everyone wins

Creative Commons Global Summit 2019

Join us in Lisbon, Portugal from May 9-11 to unleash a global community for open in action!

Learn more

  • Donate to help keep the internet free and open!

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The growing commons

1.1 billion works and counting. Explore these featured Creative Commons Licensed resources below — from literary works, to videos, photos, audio, open education, scientific research and more! Or you can share your work, and help light up the global commons!

#####EOF##### Considerations for licensors and licensees - Creative Commons

Considerations for licensors and licensees

From Creative Commons
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The following list sets out some basic things that you should think about before you apply a Creative Commons license to your material, or use Creative Commons-licensed material. It is not an exhaustive list. If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to post to one of our email discussion lists, send us an email at info@creativecommons.org, send an email to one of our country project leads or obtain your own legal advice.

Considerations for Licensors - if you are licensing your own work
Considerations for Licensees - if you are using someone else's work

Contents

Considerations for licensors

Irrevocability

Remember the license may not be revoked.

Once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright and similar rights, even if you later stop distributing it.

Type of material

Make sure the material is appropriate for CC licensing.

CC licenses are appropriate for all types of content you want to share publicly, except software and hardware.

Specify precisely what it is you are licensing.

Any given work has multiple elements; e.g., text, images, music. Make sure to clearly mark or indicate in a notice which of those are covered by the license.

Nature and adequacy of rights

Make sure the material is subject to copyright or similar rights.

CC licenses are operative only where copyright, sui generis database rights, or other rights closely related to copyright come into play. They should not be applied to material in the public domain.

Clear rights needed to use the material.

If the material includes rights held by others, make sure to get permission to sublicense those rights under the CC license. If you created the material in the scope of your employment or as a work-for-hire, you may not be the holder of the rights and may need to get permission before applying a CC license.

Indicate rights not covered by the license.

Prominently mark or indicate in a notice any rights held by third parties, such as publicity or trademark rights. This includes any content you used under exceptions or limitations to copyright, and any third party content used under another license (even if it is the same CC license as you applied).

Type of license

Think about how you want the material to be used.

Consider what you hope to achieve by sharing your work when determining which of the six CC licenses to apply. For example, if you want it to appear in a Wikipedia article, it must be licensed using BY-SA or a compatible license.

Consider any obligations that may affect what type of license you apply.

Think about any obligations you have, such as licensing requirements from a funding source, employment agreement, or limitations on your ability to use a CC license imposed by a collecting society, that dictate which (if any) of the six CC licenses you can apply.

Additional provisions

Consider offering a warranty.

If you are confident you have cleared all rights in the material, you may choose to warrant that the work does not violate the rights of any third parties.

Specify additional permissions, if desired.

You have the option of granting permissions above and beyond what the license allows; for example, allowing licensees to translate ND-licensed material. If so, consider using CC+ to indicate the additional permissions offered.

Special preferences

Specify attribution information if desired.

You may indicate particular attribution parties, a URI for the material, and other attribution information for licensees to retain.

Indicate any non binding requests.

You may ask licensees to adhere to your special requests, such as marking or describing changes they make to your material.

Considerations for licensees

Understand the license.

Read the legal code, not just the deed.

The human-readable deed is a summary of, but not a replacement for, the legal code. It does not explain everything you need to know before using licensed material.

Make sure the license grants permission for what you want to do.

There are six different CC licenses. Two of the licenses prohibit the sharing of adaptations (BY-ND, BY-NC-ND); three prohibit commercial uses (BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA), and two require adaptations be licensed under the same license (BY-SA, BY-NC-SA).

Take note of the particular version of the license.

The current version (4.0) differs from prior versions in important respects. Similarly, the jurisdiction ports may differ in certain terms, such as dispute resolution and choice of law.

Scope of the license.

Pay attention to what exactly is being licensed.

The licensor should have marked which elements of the work are subject to the license and which are not. For those elements that are not subject to the license, you may need separate permission.

Consider clearing rights if you are concerned.

The license does not contain a warranty, so if you think there may be third party rights in the material, you may want to clear those rights in advance.

Some uses of licensed material do not require permission under the license.

If the use you want to make of a work falls within an exception or limitation to copyright or similar rights, you may do so. Those uses are unregulated by the license.

Know your obligations.

Provide attribution.

All CC licenses require you provide attribution and mark the material when you share it publicly. The specific requirements vary slightly across versions.

Do not restrict others from exercising rights under the license.

All CC licenses prohibit you from applying effective technological measures or imposing legal terms that would prevent others from doing what the license permits.

Determine what, if anything, you can do with adaptations you make.

Depending on what type of license is applied, you are limited in whether you can share your adaptation and if so, what license you can apply to your contributions.

Termination is automatic.

All CC licenses terminate automatically when you fail to comply with its terms. If the material is under a 4.0 license, you must fix the problem within 30 days of discovery if you want your rights automatically reinstated.

Consider licensor preferences.

Consider complying with non-binding requests by the licensor.

The licensor may make special requests when you use the material. We recommend you do so when reasonable, but that is your option and not your obligation.

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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Blog - Creative Commons
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Los europeos deberían decirle al Parlamento que vote NO a los filtros de derechos de autor

Llegó el momento decisivo para el proyecto de directiva sobre derechos de autor en el mercado único digital de la Unión Europea. Las dramáticas consecuencias negativas que traerían los filtros de carga de contenidos serían desastrosas para la visión que Creative Commons tiene como organización y comunidad global. La inclusión del Artículo 13 hace que … Read More “Los europeos deberían decirle al Parlamento que vote NO a los filtros de derechos de autor”

Policy / advocacy / copyright reform

CC Search: A New Vision, Strategy & Roadmap for 2019

At A Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain at the Internet Archive, I teased a new product vision for CC Search that gets more specific than our ultimate goal of providing access to all 1.4 billion CC licensed and public domain works on the web.

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Creative Commons License Deed

cc pd CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
Public Domain Dedication

Disclaimer

The Commons Deed is not a legal instrument. It is simply a handy reference for understanding the CC0 Legal Code, a human-readable expression of some of its key terms. Think of it as the user-friendly interface to the CC0 Legal Code beneath. This Deed itself has no legal value, and its contents do not appear in CC0.

Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. Distributing, displaying, or linking to this Commons Deed does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Creative Commons has not verified the copyright status of any work to which CC0 has been applied. CC makes no warranties about any work or its copyright status in any jurisdiction, and disclaims all liability for all uses of any work.

This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (read the full text). Disclaimer

No Copyright

  • The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

    You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. See Other Information below.

Other Information

  • In no way are the patent or trademark rights of any person affected by CC0, nor are the rights that other persons may have in the work or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.
  • Unless expressly stated otherwise, the person who associated a work with this deed makes no warranties about the work, and disclaims liability for all uses of the work, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
  • When using or citing the work, you should not imply endorsement by the author or the affirmer.
Other Rights

The use of a work free of known copyright restrictions may be otherwise regulated or limited. The work or its use may be subject to personal data protection laws, publicity, image, or privacy rights that allow a person to control how their voice, image or likeness is used, or other restrictions or limitations under applicable law.

Learn more.

Endorsement

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher or anyone else endorses your use of a work may be unlawful.

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Citation

Copy and paste the HTML provided into your webpage to easily cite this work.

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Who is the affirmer?

The affirmer is the person who surrendered rights to the work worldwide using CC0, to the extent allowable by law. It may be the original author of the work or another person who may have had some copyright or related or neighboring legal rights in the work.

#####EOF##### License Versions - Creative Commons

License Versions

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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=License_Versions&oldid=115094"

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#####EOF##### License Versions - Creative Commons

License Versions

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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=License_Versions&oldid=115094"

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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Global Affiliate Network - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Global Affiliate Network

Global Affiliate Network

The Creative Commons Global Network includes 289 community members who serve as CC representatives in over 60 countries.

The Creative Commons Global Network recently undertook a community led strategic process to revamp, revitalize, and strengthen the network. This included a research lead by Anna Mazgal, from Poland, with a series of researchers working with her from inside and outside the network. A dedicated team of CC community members designed an entirely new model for collaboration – helping the network grow in a sustainable manner.

The result of this process is a new structure and strategy document for the Creative Commons Global Network. Here you can find more information about the Global Network Strategy.

We’re currently in the process of implementing this new strategy and as we do this, we invite you to join our community Slack channel or alternatively email your requests and queries to the Network Manager Simeon Oriko at network@creativecommons.org. Other ways to Get Involved is to join the conversation of the Creative Commons Community Platforms.

Creative Commons Summit 2015. Photo from CC Korea, CC BY
#####EOF##### Best practices for attribution - Creative Commons

Best practices for attribution

From Creative Commons
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You can use CC-licensed materials as long as you follow the license conditions. One condition of all CC licenses is attribution. Here are some good (and not so good) examples of attribution. Note: If you want to learn how to mark your own material with a CC license go here.

Examples of attribution

Here is a photo. Following it are some examples of how people might attribute it.

8256206923 c77e85319e n.jpg

This is an ideal attribution

"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Because:

Title? "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco"
Author? "tvol" - linked to his profile page
Source? "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" - linked to original Flickr page
License? "CC BY 2.0" - linked to license deed

This is a pretty good attribution

Photo by tvol / CC BY

Because:

Title? Title is not noted (it should be) but at least the source is linked.
Author? "tvol"
Source? "Photo" - linked to original Flickr page
License? "CC BY" - linked to license deed

This is an incorrect attribution

Photo: Creative Commons

Because:

Title? Title is not noted.
Author? Creative Commons is not the author of this photo.
Source? No link to original photo.
License? There is no mention of the license, much less a link to the license. "Creative Commons" is an organization.

This is a good attribution for material you modified slightly

8256206923 c77e85319e n desaturated.jpg
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol, used under CC BY / Desaturated from original

Because:

Title, Author, Source, and License are all noted
Modification? "Desaturated from original"

This is a good attribution for material from which you created a derivative work

8256206923 c77e85319e n 90fied.jpg
This work, "90fied", is a derivative of "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol, used under CC BY. "90fied" is licensed under CC BY by [Your name here].

Because:

Original Title, Author, Source, and License are all noted
Derivative? "This work, "90fied", is a derivative of..."
New author of the derivative work is also noted

Note: If you're at a point where you are licensing derivative works, go to Marking your work with a CC license.

This is a good attribution for material from multiple sources

Saylor marking example.jpg

Because:

Title? Specific works are named, eg. "Box-and-whisker Plots"
Author? Different authors noted for the different works.
Source? Original materials are linked for each work
License? The different licenses (Creative Commons Attribution for Collaborative Statistics and Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike for the Khan Academy video) are spelled out and linked for each work
Lastly, it is clear which attribution belongs to which work.

You can visit the Saylor.org Introduction to Statistics course page to see how they marked it up directly.

Title, Author, Source, License

A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym TASL, which stands for Title, Author, Source, License.

Title - What is the name of the material?

If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don't worry about it.

Author - Who owns the material?

Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request.

Source - Where can I find it?

Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides.

License - How can I use it?

You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY.
→ If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well.

Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it?

When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don't make it anymore complicated than it is -- just pass on any info you think is important.
→ Regarding modifications: Don't forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). If you are at the point where you are creating and licensing derivative works (example), see Marking your work with a CC license.

These best practices are based on actual CC license requirements. Noting the title is a requirement of all CC licenses version 3.0 or earlier, optional for 4.0. Noting the author, source, license, and retaining any extra notices is a requirement of all CC licenses. See Devil in the details.

Devil in the details

If you have any doubts or questions, you can read the complete attribution requirements which are spelled out in detail in the legal code of every CC license, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode#s3a. This chart compares the detailed requirements across all versions of CC licenses.

Don't make it too complicated

The license tells you to be reasonable:

You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information.

There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you're working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it's just a link to an About page that has that info. (More on different mediums below.)

Attribution in specific media

As stated above, best practices for attribution apply as reasonable to the medium you're working with. For media such as offline materials, video, audio, and images, consider:

1. Publishing a web page with attribution information. For example, on a webpage featuring your audio recording, provide a credit list of material you used that adheres to best practices above. Doing so allows not only your material, but the materials you attribute, to be found by search engines and other web discovery tools. If possible within the medium, make the Author, Source, and License links the user can follow.
Example:
This video features the song "Desaprendere (Treatment)" by fourstones, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
2. Mentioning the credits within the media itself. For example, crediting videos can be a simple list of the materials used with their associated licenses in a screen at the end of a video. For audio, it can be a verbal recitation of credits at the end of the recording.
Video example 1: "Science Commons" by Jesse Dylan - see attribution starting at 1:52
Video example 2: "Video Editing and Shot Techniques: Study of jump cuts, match cuts and cutaways " video by New Media Rights - see attribution starting at 3:21
Audio example: "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow read aloud. Mastered by John Taylor Williams - listen to attribution starting at 17:08

If you want to get Technical

If you really want to go there, we have a document about marking materials so that they are machine-readable.

Also, several groups are exploring ways to make attribution easier and simultaneously machine-readable for the web. Here are some tools that have been developed:

  • Open Attribute - a browser plugin for Firefox and Chrome that grabs the CC license metadata on a web page and turns it into an attribution for you
  • Commons Machinery - a suite of plugins for Firefox and open office tools that enables copying and pasting images with the attribution info already attached


Other guides to attribution

  • How To Attribute CC Photos poster by foter
  • Attributing Creative Commons Material (pdf) - Creative Commons Australia's publication is full of examples with colorful imagery.
  • How to attribute works you reuse under a Creative Commons license by New Media Rights provides real world examples by different media type
  • Library Resources Fox Valley Technical College provides examples of suggested OER attribution and citations. They recommend the following TASL format: “Content Title” from Encompassing Container Title, Version, by Author © Copyright date [Alternate owner if different from Author] is licensed with License [URL of license description]. Access at DOI or permalink or URL. Additional Publisher notes or licensing requirements.
Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Best_practices_for_attribution&oldid=116817"

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

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#####EOF##### Compatible Licenses - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work > Licensing considerations > Compatible Licenses

Compatible Licenses

This is the list of licenses that have been approved by Creative Commons as compatible with the two Creative Commons ShareAlike licenses, CC BY-SA and CC BY-NC-SA. You must use one of the licenses listed on this page for your contribution when you make adaptations of material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and share the adaptation, unless your use falls under an exception or limitation to copyright. Below is the definitive list of permissible licenses for your contributions to adaptations, which depends on the particular license that covers the material you are adapting.

Creative Commons evaluates licenses for ShareAlike compatibility according to its published process and criteria. Any license that has been considered formally by CC under this process will be listed on this page, with unsuccessful candidates noted in a separate section. To read about compatibility within the CC license suite, please see our FAQ.

BY-SA

See this page for an explanation of how compatibility with BY-SA works.

Version 4.0

Your contributions to adaptations of BY-SA 4.0 materials may only be licensed under:

  • BY-SA 4.0, or a later version of the BY-SA license.
  • Ported versions of the BY-SA license (if any), version 4.0 or later
  • A license designated as a “BY-SA Compatible License” as defined in BY-SA 4.0.
    • Free Art License: The Free Art license 1.3 was declared a “BY-SA–Compatible License” for version 4.0 on 21 October 2014. See the full analysis and comparison for more information.
    • GPLv3: The GNU General Public License version 3 was declared a “BY-SA–Compatible License” for version 4.0 on 8 October 2015. Note that compatibility with the GPLv3 is one-way only, which means you may license your contributions to adaptations of BY-SA 4.0 materials under GPLv3, but you may not license your contributions to adaptations of GPLv3 projects under BY-SA 4.0. Other special considerations apply. See the full analysis and comparison for more information.

Other licenses may be added to this list at any time according to the established process and criteria. Once a license has been added to this list, it will not be removed.

Version 3.0

Your contributions to adaptations of BY-SA 3.0 materials may only be licensed under:

  • BY-SA 3.0, or a later version of the BY-SA license.
  • Ported versions of the BY-SA license, version 3.0 or later.
  • A license designated as a “Creative Commons Compatible License” as defined in BY-SA 3.0.

Currently, no non-CC licenses have been designated as compatible with BY-SA 3.0. Other licenses may be added to this list at any time according to the established process and criteria. Once a license has been added to this list, it will not be removed.

Version 2.0 and 2.5

Your contributions to adaptations of BY-SA 2.0 or 2.5 materials may only be licensed under:

  • The license used for the original work, or a later version of that BY-SA license.
  • Ported versions of that BY-SA license, the same or later version as the licensed work.

Version 1.0

There is no compatibility mechanism in CC BY-SA 1.0. You must use version 1.0 for your contributions to adaptations of material under BY-SA 1.0.

BY-NC-SA

Version 4.0

Your contributions to adaptations of material under BY-NC-SA 4.0 may only be licensed under:

  • BY-NC-SA 4.0, or a later version of the BY-NC-SA license.
  • Ported versions of the BY-NC-SA license, version 4.0 or later.
  • A license designated as a “BY-NC-SA Compatible License” as defined in BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Currently, no non-CC licenses have been designated as compatible with BY-NC-SA 4.0. Other licenses may be added to this list at any time according to the established process and criteria. Once a license has been added to this list, it will not be removed.

Versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0

Your contributions to adaptations of BY-NC-SA 2.0, 2.5 or 3.0 materials may only be licensed under:

  • The license used for the original work, or a later version of that BY-NC-SA license.
  • Ported versions of that BY-NC-SA license, the same or later version as the licensed work.

Version 1.0

There is no compatibility mechanism in CC BY-NC-SA 1.0. You must use version 1.0 for your contributions to adaptations of material under BY-NC-SA 1.0.

Evaluated licenses not deemed compatible

None yet.

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#####EOF##### Contact - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Contact

Contact

Many questions are answered in our FAQ and you can find out more about our global affiliate network here. If you are unable to find your answer via our FAQ or website please be in touch regarding our website, general information or press at: info@creativecommons.org.

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Please note: we are a distributed team working all over the world. We don’t have an office, but if you need to mail us correspondence, please send it to:

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The best way to contact us is to write to info@creativecommons.org.

Reporting bugs and problems with a Creative Commons website, license, wiki or project webpage

You can write to us using the form above, or you can file an issue on GitHub.

 

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If you have reason to believe that any material or activity on a site controlled or operated by Creative Commons (such as creativecommons.org or wiki.creativecommons.org is infringing of the right(s) owned by you or someone else, for whom you have authority to act, please follow our DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure.

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As a nonprofit entity, the integrity of CC’s financial information is paramount. We have adopted Codes of Conduct that prohibit financial impropriety and protect whistle blowers who bring such irregularities to our attention. Additionally, we take seriously other misconduct that may involve the violation of our policies including, but not limited to, harassment.

If you are aware of any conduct prohibited by law or by our policies, you are encouraged to make a complaint, anonymously if you wish, to the members of the company’s Audit Committee. The email address for such complaints is audit@creativecommons.org which will forward your message automatically to the members of the Audit Committee. The Committee members are identified on our Board page. You may also submit a complaint by post or fax to the attention of “Audit Committee” at our Mountain View address.

Creative Commons is a Massachusetts-chartered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable corporation. For more information, see the corporate charter, by-laws, most recent tax return and most recent audited financial statement.

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Creative Commons > What we do > Team

Team

Creative Commons is a network of staff, board, emeritus, advisory council, audit committee, and affiliates around the world.


Our Staff


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Ryan, Mari, and Alison work through 0941176 B.C. Ltd. — a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Commons whose sole activity is to provide services to CC. 0941176 B.C. Ltd. is operated separately from our CC Canada affiliate.

#####EOF##### Creative Commons Legal Code

Creative Commons Legal Code

Namensnennung 3.0 Deutschland

CREATIVE COMMONS IST KEINE RECHTSANWALTSKANZLEI UND LEISTET KEINE RECHTSBERATUNG. DIE BEREITSTELLUNG DIESER LIZENZ FÜHRT ZU KEINEM MANDATSVERHÄLTNIS. CREATIVE COMMONS STELLT DIESE INFORMATIONEN OHNE GEWÄHR ZUR VERFÜGUNG. CREATIVE COMMONS ÜBERNIMMT KEINE GEWÄHRLEISTUNG FÜR DIE GELIEFERTEN INFORMATIONEN UND SCHLIEßT DIE HAFTUNG FÜR SCHÄDEN AUS, DIE SICH AUS DEREN GEBRAUCH ERGEBEN.

Lizenz

DER GEGENSTAND DIESER LIZENZ (WIE UNTER "SCHUTZGEGENSTAND" DEFINIERT) WIRD UNTER DEN BEDINGUNGEN DIESER CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL", "LIZENZ" ODER "LIZENZVERTRAG") ZUR VERFÜGUNG GESTELLT. DER SCHUTZGEGENSTAND IST DURCH DAS URHEBERRECHT UND/ODER ANDERE GESETZE GESCHÜTZT. JEDE FORM DER NUTZUNG DES SCHUTZGEGENSTANDES, DIE NICHT AUFGRUND DIESER LIZENZ ODER DURCH GESETZE GESTATTET IST, IST UNZULÄSSIG.

DURCH DIE AUSÜBUNG EINES DURCH DIESE LIZENZ GEWÄHRTEN RECHTS AN DEM SCHUTZGEGENSTAND ERKLÄREN SIE SICH MIT DEN LIZENZBEDINGUNGEN RECHTSVERBINDLICH EINVERSTANDEN. SOWEIT DIESE LIZENZ ALS LIZENZVERTRAG ANZUSEHEN IST, GEWÄHRT IHNEN DER LIZENZGEBER DIE IN DER LIZENZ GENANNTEN RECHTE UNENTGELTLICH UND IM AUSTAUSCH DAFÜR, DASS SIE DAS GEBUNDENSEIN AN DIE LIZENZBEDINGUNGEN AKZEPTIEREN.

1. Definitionen

  1. Der Begriff "Abwandlung" im Sinne dieser Lizenz bezeichnet das Ergebnis jeglicher Art von Veränderung des Schutzgegenstandes, solange die eigenpersönlichen Züge des Schutzgegenstandes darin nicht verblassen und daran eigene Schutzrechte entstehen. Das kann insbesondere eine Bearbeitung, Umgestaltung, Änderung, Anpassung, Übersetzung oder Heranziehung des Schutzgegenstandes zur Vertonung von Laufbildern sein. Nicht als Abwandlung des Schutzgegenstandes gelten seine Aufnahme in eine Sammlung oder ein Sammelwerk und die freie Benutzung des Schutzgegenstandes.
  2. Der Begriff "Sammelwerk" im Sinne dieser Lizenz meint eine Zusammenstellung von literarischen, künstlerischen oder wissenschaftlichen Inhalten, sofern diese Zusammenstellung aufgrund von Auswahl und Anordnung der darin enthaltenen selbständigen Elemente eine geistige Schöpfung darstellt, unabhängig davon, ob die Elemente systematisch oder methodisch angelegt und dadurch einzeln zugänglich sind oder nicht.
  3. "Verbreiten" im Sinne dieser Lizenz bedeutet, den Schutzgegenstand oder Abwandlungen im Original oder in Form von Vervielfältigungsstücken, mithin in körperlich fixierter Form der Öffentlichkeit anzubieten oder in Verkehr zu bringen.
  4. Der "Lizenzgeber" im Sinne dieser Lizenz ist diejenige natürliche oder juristische Person oder Gruppe, die den Schutzgegenstand unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz anbietet und insoweit als Rechteinhaberin auftritt.
  5. "Rechteinhaber" im Sinne dieser Lizenz ist der Urheber des Schutzgegenstandes oder jede andere natürliche oder juristische Person oder Gruppe von Personen, die am Schutzgegenstand ein Immaterialgüterrecht erlangt hat, welches die in Abschnitt 3 genannten Handlungen erfasst und bei dem eine Einräumung von Nutzungsrechten oder eine Weiterübertragung an Dritte möglich ist.
  6. Der Begriff "Schutzgegenstand" bezeichnet in dieser Lizenz den literarischen, künstlerischen oder wissenschaftlichen Inhalt, der unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz angeboten wird. Das kann insbesondere eine persönliche geistige Schöpfung jeglicher Art, ein Werk der kleinen Münze, ein nachgelassenes Werk oder auch ein Lichtbild oder anderes Objekt eines verwandten Schutzrechts sein, unabhängig von der Art seiner Fixierung und unabhängig davon, auf welche Weise jeweils eine Wahrnehmung erfolgen kann, gleichviel ob in analoger oder digitaler Form. Soweit Datenbanken oder Zusammenstellungen von Daten einen immaterialgüterrechtlichen Schutz eigener Art genießen, unterfallen auch sie dem Begriff "Schutzgegenstand" im Sinne dieser Lizenz.
  7. Mit "Sie" bzw. "Ihnen" ist die natürliche oder juristische Person gemeint, die in dieser Lizenz im Abschnitt 3 genannte Nutzungen des Schutzgegenstandes vornimmt und zuvor in Hinblick auf den Schutzgegenstand nicht gegen Bedingungen dieser Lizenz verstoßen oder aber die ausdrückliche Erlaubnis des Lizenzgebers erhalten hat, die durch diese Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte trotz eines vorherigen Verstoßes auszuüben.
  8. Unter "Öffentlich Zeigen" im Sinne dieser Lizenz sind Veröffentlichungen und Präsentationen des Schutzgegenstandes zu verstehen, die für eine Mehrzahl von Mitgliedern der Öffentlichkeit bestimmt sind und in unkörperlicher Form mittels öffentlicher Wiedergabe in Form von Vortrag, Aufführung, Vorführung, Darbietung, Sendung, Weitersendung, zeit- und ortsunabhängiger Zugänglichmachung oder in körperlicher Form mittels Ausstellung erfolgen, unabhängig von bestimmten Veranstaltungen und unabhängig von den zum Einsatz kommenden Techniken und Verfahren, einschließlich drahtgebundener oder drahtloser Mittel und Einstellen in das Internet.
  9. "Vervielfältigen" im Sinne dieser Lizenz bedeutet, mittels beliebiger Verfahren Vervielfältigungsstücke des Schutzgegenstandes herzustellen, insbesondere durch Ton- oder Bildaufzeichnungen, und umfasst auch den Vorgang, erstmals körperliche Fixierungen des Schutzgegenstandes sowie Vervielfältigungsstücke dieser Fixierungen anzufertigen, sowie die Übertragung des Schutzgegenstandes auf einen Bild- oder Tonträger oder auf ein anderes elektronisches Medium, gleichviel ob in digitaler oder analoger Form.

2. Schranken des Immaterialgüterrechts

Diese Lizenz ist in keiner Weise darauf gerichtet, Befugnisse zur Nutzung des Schutzgegenstandes zu vermindern, zu beschränken oder zu vereiteln, die Ihnen aufgrund der Schranken des Urheberrechts oder anderer Rechtsnormen bereits ohne Weiteres zustehen oder sich aus dem Fehlen eines immaterialgüterrechtlichen Schutzes ergeben.

3. Einräumung von Nutzungsrechten

Unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz räumt Ihnen der Lizenzgeber - unbeschadet unverzichtbarer Rechte und vorbehaltlich des Abschnitts 3.e) - das vergütungsfreie, räumlich und zeitlich (für die Dauer des Schutzrechts am Schutzgegenstand) unbeschränkte einfache Recht ein, den Schutzgegenstand auf die folgenden Arten und Weisen zu nutzen ("unentgeltlich eingeräumtes einfaches Nutzungsrecht für jedermann"):

  1. Den Schutzgegenstand in beliebiger Form und Menge zu vervielfältigen, ihn in Sammelwerke zu integrieren und ihn als Teil solcher Sammelwerke zu vervielfältigen;
  2. Abwandlungen des Schutzgegenstandes anzufertigen, einschließlich Übersetzungen unter Nutzung jedweder Medien, sofern deutlich erkennbar gemacht wird, dass es sich um Abwandlungen handelt;
  3. den Schutzgegenstand, allein oder in Sammelwerke aufgenommen, öffentlich zu zeigen und zu verbreiten;
  4. Abwandlungen des Schutzgegenstandes zu veröffentlichen, öffentlich zu zeigen und zu verbreiten.

  5. Bezüglich Vergütung für die Nutzung des Schutzgegenstandes gilt Folgendes:

    1. Unverzichtbare gesetzliche Vergütungsansprüche: Soweit unverzichtbare Vergütungsansprüche im Gegenzug für gesetzliche Lizenzen vorgesehen oder Pauschalabgabensysteme (zum Beispiel für Leermedien) vorhanden sind, behält sich der Lizenzgeber das ausschließliche Recht vor, die entsprechende Vergütung einzuziehen für jede Ausübung eines Rechts aus dieser Lizenz durch Sie.
    2. Vergütung bei Zwangslizenzen: Sofern Zwangslizenzen außerhalb dieser Lizenz vorgesehen sind und zustande kommen, verzichtet der Lizenzgeber für alle Fälle einer lizenzgerechten Nutzung des Schutzgegenstandes durch Sie auf jegliche Vergütung.
    3. Vergütung in sonstigen Fällen: Bezüglich lizenzgerechter Nutzung des Schutzgegenstandes durch Sie, die nicht unter die beiden vorherigen Abschnitte (i) und (ii) fällt, verzichtet der Lizenzgeber auf jegliche Vergütung, unabhängig davon, ob eine Einziehung der Vergütung durch ihn selbst oder nur durch eine Verwertungsgesellschaft möglich wäre.

Das vorgenannte Nutzungsrecht wird für alle bekannten sowie für alle noch nicht bekannten Nutzungsarten eingeräumt. Es beinhaltet auch das Recht, solche Änderungen am Schutzgegenstand vorzunehmen, die für bestimmte nach dieser Lizenz zulässige Nutzungen technisch erforderlich sind. Alle sonstigen Rechte, die über diesen Abschnitt hinaus nicht ausdrücklich durch den Lizenzgeber eingeräumt werden, bleiben diesem allein vorbehalten. Soweit Datenbanken oder Zusammenstellungen von Daten Schutzgegenstand dieser Lizenz oder Teil dessen sind und einen immaterialgüterrechtlichen Schutz eigener Art genießen, verzichtet der Lizenzgeber auf sämtliche aus diesem Schutz resultierenden Rechte.

4. Bedingungen

Die Einräumung des Nutzungsrechts gemäß Abschnitt 3 dieser Lizenz erfolgt ausdrücklich nur unter den folgenden Bedingungen:

  1. Sie dürfen den Schutzgegenstand ausschließlich unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen. Sie müssen dabei stets eine Kopie dieser Lizenz oder deren vollständige Internetadresse in Form des Uniform-Resource-Identifier (URI) beifügen. Sie dürfen keine Vertrags- oder Nutzungsbedingungen anbieten oder fordern, die die Bedingungen dieser Lizenz oder die durch diese Lizenz gewährten Rechte beschränken. Sie dürfen den Schutzgegenstand nicht unterlizenzieren. Bei jeder Kopie des Schutzgegenstandes, die Sie verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, müssen Sie alle Hinweise unverändert lassen, die auf diese Lizenz und den Haftungsausschluss hinweisen. Wenn Sie den Schutzgegenstand verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, dürfen Sie (in Bezug auf den Schutzgegenstand) keine technischen Maßnahmen ergreifen, die den Nutzer des Schutzgegenstandes in der Ausübung der ihm durch diese Lizenz gewährten Rechte behindern können. Dieser Abschnitt 4.a) gilt auch für den Fall, dass der Schutzgegenstand einen Bestandteil eines Sammelwerkes bildet, was jedoch nicht bedeutet, dass das Sammelwerk insgesamt dieser Lizenz unterstellt werden muss. Sofern Sie ein Sammelwerk erstellen, müssen Sie auf die Mitteilung eines Lizenzgebers hin aus dem Sammelwerk die in Abschnitt 4.b) aufgezählten Hinweise entfernen. Wenn Sie eine Abwandlung vornehmen, müssen Sie auf die Mitteilung eines Lizenzgebers hin von der Abwandlung die in Abschnitt 4.b) aufgezählten Hinweise entfernen.
  2. Die Verbreitung und das öffentliche Zeigen des Schutzgegenstandes oder auf ihm aufbauender Abwandlungen oder ihn enthaltender Sammelwerke ist Ihnen nur unter der Bedingung gestattet, dass Sie, vorbehaltlich etwaiger Mitteilungen im Sinne von Abschnitt 4.a), alle dazu gehörenden Rechtevermerke unberührt lassen. Sie sind verpflichtet, die Rechteinhaberschaft in einer der Nutzung entsprechenden, angemessenen Form anzuerkennen, indem Sie - soweit bekannt - Folgendes angeben:

    1. Den Namen (oder das Pseudonym, falls ein solches verwendet wird) des Rechteinhabers und / oder, falls der Lizenzgeber im Rechtevermerk, in den Nutzungsbedingungen oder auf andere angemessene Weise eine Zuschreibung an Dritte vorgenommen hat (z.B. an eine Stiftung, ein Verlagshaus oder eine Zeitung) ("Zuschreibungsempfänger"), Namen bzw. Bezeichnung dieses oder dieser Dritten;
    2. den Titel des Inhaltes;
    3. in einer praktikablen Form den Uniform-Resource-Identifier (URI, z.B. Internetadresse), den der Lizenzgeber zum Schutzgegenstand angegeben hat, es sei denn, dieser URI verweist nicht auf den Rechtevermerk oder die Lizenzinformationen zum Schutzgegenstand;
    4. und im Falle einer Abwandlung des Schutzgegenstandes in Übereinstimmung mit Abschnitt 3.b) einen Hinweis darauf, dass es sich um eine Abwandlung handelt.

    Die nach diesem Abschnitt 4.b) erforderlichen Angaben können in jeder angemessenen Form gemacht werden; im Falle einer Abwandlung des Schutzgegenstandes oder eines Sammelwerkes müssen diese Angaben das Minimum darstellen und bei gemeinsamer Nennung mehrerer Rechteinhaber dergestalt erfolgen, dass sie zumindest ebenso hervorgehoben sind wie die Hinweise auf die übrigen Rechteinhaber. Die Angaben nach diesem Abschnitt dürfen Sie ausschließlich zur Angabe der Rechteinhaberschaft in der oben bezeichneten Weise verwenden. Durch die Ausübung Ihrer Rechte aus dieser Lizenz dürfen Sie ohne eine vorherige, separat und schriftlich vorliegende Zustimmung des Lizenzgebers und / oder des Zuschreibungsempfängers weder explizit noch implizit irgendeine Verbindung zum Lizenzgeber oder Zuschreibungsempfänger und ebenso wenig eine Unterstützung oder Billigung durch ihn andeuten.

  3. Die oben unter 4.a) und b) genannten Einschränkungen gelten nicht für solche Teile des Schutzgegenstandes, die allein deshalb unter den Schutzgegenstandsbegriff fallen, weil sie als Datenbanken oder Zusammenstellungen von Daten einen immaterialgüterrechtlichen Schutz eigener Art genießen.
  4. Persönlichkeitsrechte bleiben - soweit sie bestehen - von dieser Lizenz unberührt.

5. Gewährleistung

SOFERN KEINE ANDERS LAUTENDE, SCHRIFTLICHE VEREINBARUNG ZWISCHEN DEM LIZENZGEBER UND IHNEN GESCHLOSSEN WURDE UND SOWEIT MÄNGEL NICHT ARGLISTIG VERSCHWIEGEN WURDEN, BIETET DER LIZENZGEBER DEN SCHUTZGEGENSTAND UND DIE EINRÄUMUNG VON RECHTEN UNTER AUSSCHLUSS JEGLICHER GEWÄHRLEISTUNG AN UND ÜBERNIMMT WEDER AUSDRÜCKLICH NOCH KONKLUDENT GARANTIEN IRGENDEINER ART. DIES UMFASST INSBESONDERE DAS FREISEIN VON SACH- UND RECHTSMÄNGELN, UNABHÄNGIG VON DEREN ERKENNBARKEIT FÜR DEN LIZENZGEBER, DIE VERKEHRSFÄHIGKEIT DES SCHUTZGEGENSTANDES, SEINE VERWENDBARKEIT FÜR EINEN BESTIMMTEN ZWECK SOWIE DIE KORREKTHEIT VON BESCHREIBUNGEN. DIESE GEWÄHRLEISTUNGSBESCHRÄNKUNG GILT NICHT, SOWEIT MÄNGEL ZU SCHÄDEN DER IN ABSCHNITT 6 BEZEICHNETEN ART FÜHREN UND AUF SEITEN DES LIZENZGEBERS DAS JEWEILS GENANNTE VERSCHULDEN BZW. VERTRETENMÜSSEN EBENFALLS VORLIEGT.

6. Haftungsbeschränkung

DER LIZENZGEBER HAFTET IHNEN GEGENÜBER IN BEZUG AUF SCHÄDEN AUS DER VERLETZUNG DES LEBENS, DES KÖRPERS ODER DER GESUNDHEIT NUR, SOFERN IHM WENIGSTENS FAHRLÄSSIGKEIT VORZUWERFEN IST, FÜR SONSTIGE SCHÄDEN NUR BEI GROBER FAHRLÄSSIGKEIT ODER VORSATZ, UND ÜBERNIMMT DARÜBER HINAUS KEINERLEI FREIWILLIGE HAFTUNG.

7. Erlöschen

  1. Diese Lizenz und die durch sie eingeräumten Nutzungsrechte erlöschen mit Wirkung für die Zukunft im Falle eines Verstoßes gegen die Lizenzbedingungen durch Sie, ohne dass es dazu der Kenntnis des Lizenzgebers vom Verstoß oder einer weiteren Handlung einer der Vertragsparteien bedarf. Mit natürlichen oder juristischen Personen, die Abwandlungen des Schutzgegenstandes oder diesen enthaltende Sammelwerke unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz von Ihnen erhalten haben, bestehen nachträglich entstandene Lizenzbeziehungen jedoch solange weiter, wie die genannten Personen sich ihrerseits an sämtliche Lizenzbedingungen halten. Darüber hinaus gelten die Ziffern 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, und 8 auch nach einem Erlöschen dieser Lizenz fort.
  2. Vorbehaltlich der oben genannten Bedingungen gilt diese Lizenz unbefristet bis der rechtliche Schutz für den Schutzgegenstand ausläuft. Davon abgesehen behält der Lizenzgeber das Recht, den Schutzgegenstand unter anderen Lizenzbedingungen anzubieten oder die eigene Weitergabe des Schutzgegenstandes jederzeit einzustellen, solange die Ausübung dieses Rechts nicht einer Kündigung oder einem Widerruf dieser Lizenz (oder irgendeiner Weiterlizenzierung, die auf Grundlage dieser Lizenz bereits erfolgt ist bzw. zukünftig noch erfolgen muss) dient und diese Lizenz unter Berücksichtigung der oben zum Erlöschen genannten Bedingungen vollumfänglich wirksam bleibt.

8. Sonstige Bestimmungen

  1. Jedes Mal, wenn Sie den Schutzgegenstand für sich genommen oder als Teil eines Sammelwerkes verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, bietet der Lizenzgeber dem Empfänger eine Lizenz zu den gleichen Bedingungen und im gleichen Umfang an, wie Ihnen in Form dieser Lizenz.
  2. Jedes Mal, wenn Sie eine Abwandlung des Schutzgegenstandes verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, bietet der Lizenzgeber dem Empfänger eine Lizenz am ursprünglichen Schutzgegenstand zu den gleichen Bedingungen und im gleichen Umfang an, wie Ihnen in Form dieser Lizenz.
  3. Sollte eine Bestimmung dieser Lizenz unwirksam sein, so bleibt davon die Wirksamkeit der Lizenz im Übrigen davon unberührt.
  4. Keine Bestimmung dieser Lizenz soll als abbedungen und kein Verstoß gegen sie als zulässig gelten, solange die von dem Verzicht oder von dem Verstoß betroffene Seite nicht schriftlich zugestimmt hat.
  5. Diese Lizenz (zusammen mit in ihr ausdrücklich vorgesehenen Erlaubnissen, Mitteilungen und Zustimmungen, soweit diese tatsächlich vorliegen) stellt die vollständige Vereinbarung zwischen dem Lizenzgeber und Ihnen in Bezug auf den Schutzgegenstand dar. Es bestehen keine Abreden, Vereinbarungen oder Erklärungen in Bezug auf den Schutzgegenstand, die in dieser Lizenz nicht genannt sind. Rechtsgeschäftliche Änderungen des Verhältnisses zwischen dem Lizenzgeber und Ihnen sind nur über Modifikationen dieser Lizenz möglich. Der Lizenzgeber ist an etwaige zusätzliche, einseitig durch Sie übermittelte Bestimmungen nicht gebunden. Diese Lizenz kann nur durch schriftliche Vereinbarung zwischen Ihnen und dem Lizenzgeber modifiziert werden. Derlei Modifikationen wirken ausschließlich zwischen dem Lizenzgeber und Ihnen und wirken sich nicht auf die Dritten gemäß Ziffern 8.a) und b) angebotenen Lizenzen aus.
  6. Sofern zwischen Ihnen und dem Lizenzgeber keine anderweitige Vereinbarung getroffen wurde und soweit Wahlfreiheit besteht, findet auf diesen Lizenzvertrag das Recht der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Anwendung.

Creative Commons Notice

Creative Commons ist nicht Partei dieser Lizenz und übernimmt keinerlei Gewähr oder dergleichen in Bezug auf den Schutzgegenstand. Creative Commons haftet Ihnen oder einer anderen Partei unter keinem rechtlichen Gesichtspunkt für irgendwelche Schäden, die - abstrakt oder konkret, zufällig oder vorhersehbar - im Zusammenhang mit dieser Lizenz entstehen. Unbeschadet der vorangegangen beiden Sätze, hat Creative Commons alle Rechte und Pflichten eines Lizenzgebers, wenn es sich ausdrücklich als Lizenzgeber im Sinne dieser Lizenz bezeichnet.

Creative Commons gewährt den Parteien nur insoweit das Recht, das Logo und die Marke "Creative Commons" zu nutzen, als dies notwendig ist, um der Öffentlichkeit gegenüber kenntlich zu machen, dass der Schutzgegenstand unter einer CCPL steht. Ein darüber hinaus gehender Gebrauch der Marke "Creative Commons" oder einer verwandten Marke oder eines verwandten Logos bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Zustimmung von Creative Commons. Jeder erlaubte Gebrauch richtet sich nach der Creative Commons Marken-Nutzungs-Richtlinie in der jeweils aktuellen Fassung, die von Zeit zu Zeit auf der Website veröffentlicht oder auf andere Weise auf Anfrage zugänglich gemacht wird. Zur Klarstellung: Die genannten Einschränkungen der Markennutzung sind nicht Bestandteil dieser Lizenz.

Creative Commons kann kontaktiert werden über https://creativecommons.org/.

#####EOF##### The Value of Human Readable Deeds - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > About CC > The Value of Human Readable Deeds

The Value of Human Readable Deeds

February 18, 2009

By now you’ve probably heard that Facebook modified their Terms of Service and after facing a huge community backlash, returned them to their original state. Most of the issues at play were outside the scope of what we work on at CC, but the incident brings up something that we are very much interested in: human readable legal deeds.

Whether you believe Facebook was acting in their users’ best interest, or if you think the social network’s lawyers were trying to slip something past their community, one thing is clear: the meaning behind the change in Facebook Terms of Service was not explicit to its 175 million users, and they weren’t happy with it. Put simply, Facebook’s Terms of Service were not human readable.

One way of thinking about Creative Commons is that we give a user-interface to copyright law through our human readable deeds, machine readable metadata, and lawyer readable licenses. The human readable deed (which you will be familiar with if you’ve ever clicked on a CC badge) allows users and authors of content to clearly understand what rights the public has to use a work and what obligations to the original creator must be upheld. More specifically, human readable license deeds, CC’s metadata infrastructure and our brand all work together to avoid the kind of confusion and panic Facebook’s amended Terms of Service caused. By using a CC license as the default license for a platform, such as on the free-as-in-speech microblog community Identi.ca, both administrators and users can be clear about how their work will be reused by the public because CC licenses are a standard now adopted by millions of people.

Communicating to your users about how their work will be used is an ongoing and crucial responsibility of all online community leaders and CC licenses are designed to alleviate this responsibility by clarifying copyright questions for authors, users, and platforms alike.

If anyone at Facebook is interested in implementing CC licenses for user content, get in touch.

Category:About CC Weblog
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4 thoughts on “The Value of Human Readable Deeds”

  1. this is a great idea! last week, facebook signed on to the openID group… why not creative commons!?!

    too boot, i think we need to do this with all legislation. who needs lawyers anyway? 😉

  2. The problem with ‘human readable’ licenses is that they aren’t the actual licenses. They’re just a summary of varying degrees of accuracy. Have we figured out what ‘non-commercial’ or ‘no derivatives’ actually means?

  3. Normal people don’t even get how SA works. (Or at least if I am normal, if not, abnormal people like me.) And BY-SA is my preferred license for my non-code works.

    drew

  4. I’ve been an admirer of human-readable deeds since I first saw the CC-By license.

    I think it is a great practice. It establishes the intention of the licensor pretty clearly and if there were a conflict with the legal form, I would expect the legal form to be repaired, not for the deed to be complexified.

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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Terms of Use - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Terms of Use

Terms of Use

Creative Commons Master Terms of Use

Effective as of 25 May 2018

1. General Information Regarding These Terms of Use

Master terms: Welcome, and thank you for your interest in Creative Commons (“Creative Commons,” “CC,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). Unless otherwise noted on a particular site or service, these master terms of use (“Master Terms”) apply to your use of all of the websites that Creative Commons Corporation operates. These include https://creativecommons.org, https://wiki.creativecommons.org, https://network.creativecommons.org, https://search.creativecommons.org, https://labs.creativecommons.org, http://openpolicynetwork.org, http://open4us.org, https://rightsback.org, http://teamopen.cc, and http://thepowerofopen.org, together with all other subdomains thereof, (collectively, the “Websites”). The Master Terms also apply to all products, information, and services provided through the Websites, including without limitation the license chooser, legal tools, the CCID service available at https://login.creativecommons.org/login (“CC Login Service”), and the CC Global Network community website (together with the Websites, the “Services”).

Creative Commons does not operate the website at http://ccmixter.org.

Additional terms: In addition to the Master Terms, your use of any Services may also be subject to specific terms applicable to a particular Service (“Additional Terms”). If there is any conflict between the Additional Terms and the Master Terms, then the Additional Terms apply in relation to the relevant Service.

Collectively, the Terms: The Master Terms, together with any Additional Terms, form a binding legal agreement between you and Creative Commons in relation to your use of the Services. Collectively, this legal agreement is referred to below as the “Terms.”

Human-readable summary of Sec 1: These terms, together with any special terms for particular websites, create a contract between you and Creative Commons. The contract governs your use of all websites operated by Creative Commons, unless a particular website indicates otherwise. These human-readable summaries of each section are not part of the contract, but are intended to help you understand its terms.

2. Your Agreement to the Terms

BY CLICKING “I ACCEPT” OR OTHERWISE ACCESSING OR USING ANY OF THE SERVICES (INCLUDING THE LICENSES, PUBLIC DOMAIN TOOLS, AND CHOOSERS), YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREED TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS. By clicking “I ACCEPT” or otherwise accessing or using any Services you also represent that you have the legal authority to accept the Terms on behalf of yourself and any party you represent in connection with your use of any Services. If you do not agree to the Terms, you are not authorized to use any Services. If you are an individual who is entering into these Terms on behalf of an entity, you represent and warrant that you have the power to bind that entity, and you hereby agree on that entity’s behalf to be bound by these Terms, with the terms “you,” and “your” applying to you, that entity, and other users accessing the Services on behalf of that entity.

Human-readable summary of Sec 2: Please read these terms and only use our sites and services if you agree to them.

3. Changes to the Terms

From time to time, Creative Commons may change, remove, or add to the Terms, and reserves the right to do so in its discretion. In that case, we will post updated Terms and indicate the date of revision. If we feel the modifications are material, we will make reasonable efforts to post a prominent notice on the relevant Website(s) and notify those of you with a current CC Login Service account via email. All new and/or revised Terms take effect immediately and apply to your use of the Services from that date on, except that material changes will take effect 30 days after the change is made and identified as material. Your continued use of any Services after new and/or revised Terms are effective indicates that you have read, understood, and agreed to those Terms.

Human-readable summary of Sec 3: These terms may change. When the changes are important, we will put a notice on the website. If you continue to use the sites after the changes are made, you agree to the changes.

Creative Commons is not a law firm, does not provide legal advice, and is not a substitute for a law firm. Sending us an email or using any of the Services, including the licenses, public domain tools, and choosers, does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship.

Human-readable summary of Sec 4: Some of us are lawyers, but we aren’t your lawyer. Please consult your own attorney if you need legal advice.

5. Content Available through the Services

Provided as-is: You acknowledge that Creative Commons does not make any representations or warranties about the material, data, and information, such as data files, text, computer software, code, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos, or other images (collectively, the “Content”) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Services. Under no circumstances is Creative Commons liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to: any infringing Content, any errors or omissions in Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, transmitted, linked from, or otherwise accessible through or made available via the Services. You understand that by using the Services, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, or objectionable.

You agree that you are solely responsible for your reuse of Content made available through the Services, including providing proper attribution. You should review the terms of the applicable license before you use the Content so that you know what you can and cannot do.

Licensing: CC-Owned Content: Other than the text of Creative Commons licenses, CC0, and other legal tools and the text of the deeds for all legal tools (all of which are made available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication), Creative Commons trademarks (subject to the Trademark Policy), and the software code, all Content on the Websites is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, unless otherwise marked. See the CC Policies page for more information.

CC-Owned Code: All of CC’s software code is free software; please check our code repository for the specific license on software you want to reuse.

Search Tools: On some of its Websites, Creative Commons provides website search tools, including CC Search, which return Content based on any license information our search tools are able to locate and interpret. Those search tools may return Content that is not CC licensed, and you should independently verify the terms of the license attached to any Content you intend to use.

Human-readable summary of Sec 5: We try our best to have useful information on our sites, but we cannot promise that everything is accurate or appropriate for your situation. Content on the site is licensed under CC BY 4.0 unless it says it is available under different terms. If you find content through a link on our websites, be sure to check the license terms before using it.

6. Content Supplied by You

Your responsibility: You represent, warrant, and agree that no Content posted or otherwise shared by you on or through any of the Services (“Your Content”), violates or infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights, breaches or conflicts with any obligation, such as a confidentiality obligation, or contains libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful material.

Licensing Your Content: You retain any copyright that you may have in Your Content. You hereby agree that Your Content: (a) is hereby licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and may be used under the terms of that license or any later version of a Creative Commons Attribution License, or (b) is in the public domain (such as Content that is not copyrightable or Content you make available under CC0), or (c) if not owned by you, (i) is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License or (ii) is a media file that is available under any Creative Commons license or that you are authorized by law to post or share through any of the Services, such as under the fair use doctrine, and that is prominently marked as being subject to third party copyright. All of Your Content must be appropriately marked with licensing (or other permission status such as fair use) and attribution information.

Removal: Creative Commons may, but is not obligated to, review Your Content and may delete or remove Your Content (without notice) from any of the Services in its sole discretion. Removal of any of Your Content from the Services (by you or Creative Commons) does not impact any rights you granted in Your Content under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Human-readable summary of Sec 6: We do not take any ownership of your content when you post it on our sites. If you post content you own, you agree it can be used under the terms of CC BY 4.0 or any future version of that license. If you do not own the content, then you should not post it unless it is in the public domain or licensed CC BY 4.0, except that you may also post pictures and videos if you are authorized to use them under law (e.g., fair use) or if they are available under any CC license. You must note that information on the file when you upload it. You are responsible for any content you upload to our sites.

7. Participating in the CCGN and Community: Registered Users

By registering for an account through any of the Services, including securing a CC Login Service account, or applying for membership to the CCGN, you represent and warrant that you are the age of majority in your jurisdiction (typically age 18). Services offered to registered users are provided subject to these Master Terms, the CC Privacy Policy, and any Additional Terms specified on the relevant Website(s), all of which are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms.

Registration: You agree to (a) only provide accurate and current information about yourself (though use of an alias or nickname in lieu of your legal name is encouraged in connection with the CC Login Service), (b) maintain the security of your passwords and identification, (c) promptly update the email address listed in connection with your account to keep it accurate so that we can contact you, and (d) be fully responsible for all uses of your account. You must not set up an account on behalf of another individual or entity unless you are authorized to do so.

No Membership in CC: Creating a CC Login Service account or using any of the related Websites or Services, including becoming a member of the CCGN, does not and shall not be deemed to make you a member, shareholder or affiliate of Creative Commons for any purposes whatsoever, nor shall you have any of the rights of statutory members as defined in Sections 2(3) and 3 of Chapter 180 of the General Laws of Massachusetts or any other law.

Termination: Creative Commons reserves the right to modify or discontinue your account or your membership in the CCGN at any time for any reason or no reason at all.

Human-readable summary of Sec 7: Please do not register for an account on our sites unless you are 18 years old. CC has the right to end your account at any time. You are responsible for use of your account. And of course, please do not set up an account for someone else unless you have permission to do so. Setting up an account doesn’t make you a member of CC.

8. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to engage in any of the following activities:

1. Violating laws and rights:

  • You may not (a) use any Service for any illegal purpose or in violation of any local, state, national, or international laws, (b) violate or encourage others to violate any right of or obligation to a third party, including by infringing, misappropriating, or violating intellectual property, confidentiality, or privacy rights.

2. Solicitation:

  • You may not use the Services or any information provided through the Services for the transmission of advertising or promotional materials, including junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unsolicited or unwelcome solicitation.

3. Disruption:

  • You may not use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Services, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Services; including by (a) uploading or otherwise disseminating any virus, adware, spyware, worm or other malicious code, or (b) interfering with or disrupting any network, equipment, or server connected to or used to provide any of the Services, or violating any regulation, policy, or procedure of any network, equipment, or server.

4. Harming others:

  • You may not post or transmit Content on or through the Services that is harmful, offensive, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, defamatory, hateful or otherwise discriminatory, false or misleading, or incites an illegal act;
  • You may not intimidate or harass another through the Services; and, you may not post or transmit any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age on or through the Services.

5. Impersonation or unauthorized access:

  • You may not impersonate another person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity when using the Services;
  • You may not use or attempt to use another’s account or personal information without authorization; and
  • You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services, or the computer systems or networks connected to the Services, through hacking password mining or any other means.

Human-readable summary of Sec 8: Play nice. Be yourself. Don’t break the law or be disruptive.

9. Creative Commons Global Network (“CCGN”)

By submitting your application to become a member of the CCGN at network.creativecommons.org, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and, in the event you are accepted for membership, agree to be bound by the CCGN Charter, including the Code of Conduct and the policies referenced and incorporated therein. If you are admitted to the CCGN, these terms and the CCGN Charter shall govern your use of and participation in the CCGN, including your participation in any forum operated by the CCGN, such as platforms, chapters, and working groups. Note that your participation in such fora may also be governed by additional rules and guidelines for doing so. Please see CC’s Privacy Policy for more information about how your information (as an applicant, member, and voucher) will be used.

Human-readable summary of Sec 9: When you join the CCGN, you agree to certain policies. Please read them before you apply. 

10. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS OFFERS THE SERVICES (INCLUDING ALL CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES) AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE SERVICES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL BE ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY SERVERS USED BY CC ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION REGARDING USE OF THE CONTENT AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES IN TERMS OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE.

Human-readable summary of Sec 10: CC does not make any guarantees about the sites, services, or content available on the sites.

11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL CREATIVE COMMONS BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, ACTUAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF REVENUE OR INCOME, LOST PROFITS, PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR SIMILAR DAMAGES SUFFERED OR INCURRED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY THAT ARISE IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES (OR THE TERMINATION THEREOF FOR ANY REASON), EVEN IF CREATIVE COMMONS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE WHATSOEVER IN ANY MANNER FOR ANY CONTENT POSTED ON OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES (INCLUDING CLAIMS OF INFRINGEMENT RELATING TO THAT CONTENT), FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, OR FOR THE CONDUCT OF THIRD PARTIES ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES.

Certain jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply to you. IN THESE JURISDICTIONS, THE FOREGOING EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS WILL BE ENFORCED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

Human-readable summary of Sec 11: CC is not responsible for the content on the sites, your use of our services, or for the conduct of others on our sites.

12. Indemnification

To the extent authorized by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Creative Commons, its employees, officers, directors, affiliates, and agents from and against any and all claims, losses, expenses, damages, and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting directly or indirectly from or arising out of (a) your violation of the Terms, (b) your use of any of the Services, and/or (c) the Content you make available on any of the Services.

Human-readable summary of Sec 12: If something happens because you violate these terms, because of your use of the services, or because of the content you post on the sites, you agree to repay CC for the damage it causes.

13. Privacy Policy

Creative Commons is committed to responsibly handling the information and data we collect through our Services in compliance with our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms. Please review the Privacy Policy so you are aware of how we collect and use your personal information.

Human-readable summary of Sec 13: Please read our Privacy Policy. It is part of these terms, too.

14. Trademark Policy

CC’s name, logos, icons, and other trademarks may only be used in accordance with our Trademark Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms. Please review the Trademark Policy so you understand how CC’s trademarks may be used.

Human-readable summary of Sec 14: Please read our Trademark Policy. It is part of these terms, too.

Creative Commons respects copyright, and we prohibit users of the Services from submitting, uploading, posting, or otherwise transmitting any Content on the Services that violates another person’s proprietary rights.

To report allegedly infringing Content hosted on a website owned or controlled by CC, send a Notice of Infringing Materials as set out in CC’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Notice & Takedown Procedure.

Please note that Creative Commons does not host the Content made available through CC Search. You should contact the web site or service hosting the Content to have it removed.

Human-readable summary of Sec 15: Please let us know if you find infringing content on our websites.

16. Termination

By Creative Commons: Creative Commons may modify, suspend, or terminate the operation of, or access to, all or any portion of the Services at any time for any reason. Additionally, your individual access to, and use of, the Services may be terminated by Creative Commons at any time and for any reason.

By you: If you wish to terminate this agreement, you may immediately stop accessing or using the Services at any time.

Automatic upon breach: Your right to access and use the Services (including use of your CC Login Service account) automatically upon your breach of any of the Terms. For the avoidance of doubt, termination of the Terms does not require you to remove or delete any reference to previously-applied CC legal tools from your own Content.

Survival: The disclaimer of warranties, the limitation of liability, and the jurisdiction and applicable law provisions will survive any termination. The license grants applicable to Your Content are not impacted by the termination of the Terms and shall continue in effect subject to the terms of the applicable license. Your warranties and indemnification obligations will survive for one year after termination.

Human-readable summary of Sec 16: If you violate these terms, you may no longer use our sites.

17. Miscellaneous Terms

Choice of law: The Terms are governed by and construed by the laws of the State of California in the United States, not including its choice of law rules.

Dispute resolution: The parties agree that any disputes between Creative Commons and you concerning these Terms, and/or any of the Services may only brought in a federal or state court of competent jurisdiction sitting in the Northern District of California, and you hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of such court.

  • If you are an authorized agent of a government or intergovernmental entity using the Services in your official capacity, including an authorized agent of the federal, state, or local government in the United States, and you are legally restricted from accepting the controlling law, jurisdiction, or venue clauses above, then those clauses do not apply to you. For any such U.S. federal government entities, these Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the laws of the United States of America (without reference to conflict of laws) and, in the absence of federal law and to the extent permitted under federal law, the laws of the State of California (excluding its choice of law rules).

No waiver: Either party’s failure to insist on or enforce strict performance of any of the Terms will not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right.

Severability: If any part of the Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by any law or regulation or final determination of a competent court or tribunal, that provision will be deemed severable and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.

No agency relationship: The parties agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Creative Commons as a result of the Terms or from your use of any of the Services.

Integration: These Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Creative Commons relating to this subject matter and supersede any and all prior communications and/or agreements between you and Creative Commons relating to access and use of the Services.

Human-readable summary of Sec 17: If there is a lawsuit arising from these terms, it should be in California and governed by California law. We are glad you use our sites, but this agreement does not mean we are partners.

Note about Reusing these Terms of Use.

The Creative Commons Terms of Use are dedicated to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication. You are free to use and adapt these Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms for your own purposes. However, please keep in mind that these Terms may not be completely suitable for your situation. Creative Commons strongly encourages you to seek the advice of your own attorney before repurposing these Terms on your own site.

#####EOF##### Platforms: A commons-based approach to global collaboration - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Events > Platforms: A commons-based approach to global collaboration

Platforms: A commons-based approach to global collaboration

The Global Network will identify and collaborate on a series of shared interests and priorities, which we have called Platforms.

Alek TarkowskiClaudio Ruiz

and

April 24, 2017

cc-summit

CC’s community grew up around the licenses, but over the past decade it has evolved into a powerful and diverse movement of interests and areas of work including open policy, open education, access to research and data, and cultural sharing. While those communities grew naturally, CC has never had a model for collaboration, shared goal-setting, and mobilizing action. The new network strategy, for the first time, creates a simple structure to enable global collaboration and action.

The Global Network will identify and collaborate on a series of shared interests and priorities, which we have called Platforms. A Platform is an area of work, a space for individuals and institutions to organize and coordinate themselves across the broad network. It’s open to anyone inside and outside the Creative Commons Global Network to support, share experience and collaborate on its goals and objectives. Through Platforms, we want to initiate strategic collaboration between network members that will have worldwide impact.

We are using the opportunity of this Global Summit to open the conversation about designing Platforms in several ways. On Friday, just after the opening, we will host a session called Programs for the New CC Global Network: How Can We Work Together? (Friday 13:30 – 15:00), where we expect to talk about the future work our community would like to be engaged to work in the future and have a big picture conversation about it. On Sunday (13:30 – 15:30), there will be a session called A Platform for Big Thinking about CC, a follow up session to the first, where we expect to think really big about the Future of the Commons, both in terms of challenges surrounding CC but also the Digital Commons.

Then, we will have specific sessions on Platforms related to the Open Education Platform (Friday 15:00 – 16:50), Copyright Reform (Saturday 15:30 – 18:00) and Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) (Sunday 13:30 – 15:30). And, strongly connected with this community-driven effort, we also scheduled a specific session on Building a culture of appreciation for the new Global Network (Saturday, 16:00 – 17:30) where we expect to open a conversation about requirements, needs and tools we would like to see to make our community strengthen and grow healthy and diverse.

While participating in the Summit, and especially leading sessions, please keep in mind the possibility of establishing a platform around a shared issue of interest. We have prepared guidelines for people interested in proposing a platform.

The CC Summit is an exciting opportunity for global collaboration and action. Summit participants will begin to share their goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics and lead a global conversation towards a stronger commons and community through an open invitation that starts at Summit, but will continue through the year, and beyond.

The Summit is the beginning of this conversation as well as the beginning of a big experiment in working together. By proposing a platform early on, you can join this early phase of testing how platforms will function. If you have ideas about CC platforms, please share them on social media using #ccplatforms hashtag and in our Slack. We would be very happy to see a broad range of platforms being discussed. Join us.

Category:Events

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#####EOF##### About CC Archives - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > About CC

About CC

smugmug-tweet

CC Working with Flickr to Protect the Commons

Today, Creative Commons is working closely with Flickr and its parent company SmugMug to find ways to protect and preserve the Commons, and ultimately help it grow and thrive. We want to ensure that when users share their works that they are available online in perpetuity

About CC
#####EOF##### CC0 at the Cleveland Museum of Art: 30,000 high quality digital images now available - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > About CC > CC0 at the Cleveland Museum of Art: 30,000 high quality digital images now available

CC0 at the Cleveland Museum of Art: 30,000 high quality digital images now available

Today, we are announcing a release of 30,000 high quality, free and open digital images from the museum’s collection under CC0 and available via their API.

Jennie Rose Halperin

January 23, 2019

green-tara

The Cleveland Museum of Art is one of the most visited art museums in the world, and soon it will become one of the most important online collections as well. Today, we are announcing a release of 30,000 high quality, free and open digital images from the museum’s collection under CC0 and available via their API. CC0 allows anyone to use, re-use, and remix a work without restriction.

In line with the museum’s mission to work “for the benefit of all people in the Digital Age,” the Cleveland Museum is leading the charge for comprehensive metadata and open access policy. The museum sees its role as not only providing access, but also creating sincere partnerships that increase utility and relevance in our time.

Creative Commons CEO Ryan Merkley joined museum director William M. Griswold and Chief Digital and Information Officer Jane Alexander at the CMA to announce this release. “I hope this model of working closely together with visionary organizations will be one that we can replicate with other museums, and that this will become the new standard by which institutions share and engage with the public online,” he said. The museum’s leadership echoed the sentiment.

“Open Access with Creative Commons will provide countless new opportunities to engage with works of art in our collection. With this move, we have transformed not only access to the CMA’s collection, but also its usability—inside as well as outside the walls of our museum,” said Griswold.

The newly released images and their associated metadata can also be viewed on CC Search, the Creative Commons image portal that provides access to millions of CC Images from 21 providers. This portal is currently in development and growing, and the Cleveland Museum of Art’s images provide another access point for billions of learners around the world to experience and enjoy cultural heritage. In this release, the CMA joins other institutions that have made the choice to share, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

list-cleveland-highlights

Highlights from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection include Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies (Agapanthus)”, William Merritt Chase’s “Portrait of Dora Wheeler,” Albrecht Dürer’s “The Four Horsemen, from the Apocalypse”, and many important works of Indian, African, and Asian art. Our profound thanks to the staff of the CMA for making this partnership possible. This release was due to their hard work and leadership, and we look forward to continued partnership with this important cultural institution.

Watch our social media and Slack for collection highlights and more information, and experience the collection yourself at CC Search.

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#####EOF##### CC Search
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Try the new CC Search beta, with list-making and one-click attribution!

Please note that search.creativecommons.org is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link. Since there is no registration to use a CC license, CC has no way to determine what has and hasn't been placed under the terms of a CC license. If you are in doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content.

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Learn how to switch to or from CC Search in your Firefox search bar.

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#####EOF##### CC Search: A New Vision, Strategy & Roadmap for 2019 - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Technology > CC Search: A New Vision, Strategy & Roadmap for 2019

CC Search: A New Vision, Strategy & Roadmap for 2019

At A Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain at the Internet Archive, I teased a new product vision for CC Search that gets more specific than our ultimate goal of providing access to all 1.4 billion CC licensed and public domain works on the web.

Jane Park

March 19, 2019

At the Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain at the Internet Archive, I teased a new product vision for CC Search that gets more specific than our ultimate goal of providing access to all 1.4 billion CC licensed and public domain works on the web. I’m pleased to present that refined vision, which is focused on building a product that promotes not just discovery, but reuse of openly-licensed and public domain works. We want your feedback in making it a reality. What kinds of images do you most need and desire to reuse when creating your own works? Along that vein, what organizational collections would you like to see us prioritizing for inclusion? Where can we make the biggest difference for you and your fellow creators?

Vision

Our 2019 vision is:

“CC Search is a leading tool for creators looking to discover and reuse free resources with greater ease and confidence.”

The vision centers on reuse — CC will prioritize and build for users who seek to not only discover free resources in the commons, but who seek to reuse these resources with greater ease and confidence, and for whom in particular the rights status of these works may be important. This approach means that CC will shift from its “quantity first” approach (front door to 1.4 billion works) to prioritizing content that is more relevant and engaging to creators.

We made our assumptions based on a combination of user research, whatever quantitative data we could get our hands on (e.g. analytics on previous iterations of search), and pure conjecture (based on anecdotal evidence from our community), or what in the lean start-up world is called a leap of faith.

How we expect reuse to happen

The base catalog is the database of all CC works we are continuing to gather and grow. We envision users will be able to access this catalog in three ways:

  1. Through CC Search — the default front end you see now.
  2. Through some curation on CC Search — you could imagine different portals for different kinds of users, e.g. educators seeking open textbooks.
  3. Through CC Search being integrated directly into other sites and software via a CC API, e.g. CC Search in Google Docs.

Once the user accesses the work, the user takes the next step to reuse the work. They download it, which means they make a copy. The user who is also a creator takes a step further; they attribute the author of the work in their new creation, ideally through the automatic and easy ways we provide for them to do this. Both download and attribution are ways a user reuses the work in a way that implicates copyright and thereby the Creative Commons license. And both are potential ways we can learn how that work is used in the wild.

Through learning about how CC works are reused, we will be able to validate our hypotheses and know we are on the right track (or not). We will also be better able to tell the story or journey of the works’ impact, which speaks to a key insight from our user research:

“People like seeing how their work is used, where it goes, and who it touches, but have no easy way to find this out.”

This learning is the hard part of our work, and what we still need to figure out. How do we track and learn about reuse in a way that is effective, but also aligns with our values and respects user privacy?

User research & usability testing

In 2019, we will focus on images and texts, with a stretch goal of including audio files. Accordingly, we will focus any user research and usability testing on groups of people that reuse these works in a meaningful way, specifically, “Creators making new works using existing free content.” A few we will start with are:

  • Creators making designs, imagery and art works (commercial or independent)
  • Creators illustrating a text or text-based resource (blog, journalistic articles, educational/academic texts or presentations)
  • Creators making a video

We’ll also being doing some separate user research to add open texts, which is a different bucket of people than the creators above, because we think (but don’t know) that most people seeking open texts are really seeking access, and not reuse, when it comes to CC Search. For example, we think that community college faculty looking for open textbooks are mainly seeking to access all open textbooks in one place.

As we talk to users, collect user feedback, and conduct usability testing, we may learn differently.

Roadmap

Based on this new 2019 vision and strategy, here are some of our key deliverables for the year.

The complete roadmap is available here, which also includes a pipeline of ideas. The pipeline of ideas is the master list of ideas from the community that we will revisit at the end of each quarter to decide what makes it in the roadmap. The roadmap is an evolving document and we welcome your comments and feedback.

The Team

Follow the arrows from upper left: Kriti, Sophine, Alden, Breno, Sarah, Jane

The current CC Search team is led by CC’s Director of Engineering, Kriti Godey, and myself, CC’s Director of Product and Research. The other members are Sophine Clachar (Data Engineer), Alden Page (Back End Engineer), Breno Ferreira (Front End Engineer) and Sarah Pearson (Product Counsel).

Get involved

We are growing a vibrant community of open source developers and users willing to test and provide feedback on CC Search.

If you’re a current or potential user of CC Search, join the #cc-usability channel at the Creative Commons Slack (https://slack-signup.creativecommons.org) where we regularly engage the group for feedback on new features.

If you’re a developer, check out Creative Commons Open Source, a hub for the CC developer community and the #cc-developers channel at the Creative Commons Slack.

Category:Technology
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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Versioning - Public Review Begins - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > Versioning — Public Review Begins

Versioning — Public Review Begins

January 26, 2004

As we announced last week, we’re getting ready to roll out Version 2.0 of the eleven original Creative Commons licenses. Review a draft of v2.0 of the by-nc-sa license (from which all other licenses are composed) and let us know what you think. It’ll be up until Feb. 15, and we may make updates in the meantime — we’ll let you know.

A review of the changes, with directions to the relevant section:

  • Warranties will now be a matter of choice for the licensor. See Section 5a.
  • The attribution clause will include a link-back requirement simliar to the one previously discussed here. Licensees will only be required to link back to licensors if (1) it’s reasonably practical to do so; (2) the licensor actually specifies a URI; (3) that URI actually points to license information about the work. See Section 4d.
  • The Share Alike provision will be more flexible. The provision will allow licensees to license resulting derivative works under Creative Commons licenses that feature the same license restrictions/permissions, including future and iCommons versions of the same license. The Share Alike provision will also be clearer about what happens when different kinds of Share Alike content is mixed together (e.g., How to license a collage made from an SA photograph combined with an NC-SA photograph). See Section 4b.
  • Ideas for creating compatibility between our SA license and the GNU FDL are coming soon. We’ll post here and to the cc-licenses list when it’s ready.

Thanks.

Category:Weblog

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#####EOF##### License Versions - Creative Commons

License Versions

From Creative Commons
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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=License_Versions&oldid=115094"

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#####EOF##### Licensing types - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work > Licensing types

Licensing types

The following describes each of the six main licenses offered when you choose to publish your work with a Creative Commons license. We have listed them starting with the most accommodating license type you can choose and ending with the most restrictive license type you can choose.

License Conditions

Creators choose a set of conditions they wish to apply to their work.

Attribution Attribution (by)

All CC licenses require that others who use your work in any way must give you credit the way you request, but not in a way that suggests you endorse them or their use. If they want to use your work without giving you credit or for endorsement purposes, they must get your permission first.

ShareAlike ShareAlike (sa)

You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first.

NonCommercial NonCommercial (nc)

You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivatives) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permission first.

NoDerivatives NoDerivatives (nd)

You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first.

#####EOF##### Legal tools / licenses Archives - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Legal tools / licenses

Legal tools / licenses

European Commission adopts CC BY and CC0 for sharing information

Last week the European Commission announced it has adopted CC BY 4.0 and CC0 to share published documents, including photos, videos, reports, peer-reviewed studies, and data. The Commission joins other public institutions around the world that use standard, legally interoperable tools like Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools to share a wide range of … Read More “European Commission adopts CC BY and CC0 for sharing information”

Legal tools / licenses

Traditional Knowledge and the Commons: The Open Movement, Listening, and Learning

CC licenses and public domain tools help individuals, organisations, and public institutions better disseminate digital resources and data, breaking down the typical barriers associated with traditional “all rights reserved” copyright. At the same time, CC licenses can’t do everything for everyone. First, the licenses operate in the sphere of copyright and similar rights. They do … Read More “Traditional Knowledge and the Commons: The Open Movement, Listening, and Learning”

Legal tools / licenses
#####EOF##### CC’s Next Generation Licenses - Welcome Version 4.0! - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!

CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!

Diane Peters

November 25, 2013

We proudly introduce our 4.0 licenses, now available for adoption worldwide. The 4.0 licenses — more than two years in the making — are the most global, legally robust licenses produced by CC to date. We have incorporated dozens of improvements that make sharing and reusing CC-licensed materials easier and more dependable than ever before.

We had ambitious goals in mind when we embarked on the versioning process coming out of the 2011 CC Global Summit in Warsaw. The new licenses achieve all of these goals, and more. The 4.0 licenses are extremely well-suited for use by governments and publishers of public sector information and other data, especially for those in the European Union. This is due to the expansion in license scope, which now covers sui generis database rights that exist there and in a handful of other countries.

Among other exciting new features are improved readability and organization, common-sense attribution, and a new mechanism that allows those who violate the license inadvertently to regain their rights automatically if the violation is corrected in a timely manner.

You can find highlights of the most significant improvements on our website, track the course of the public discussion and evolution of the license drafts on the 4.0 wiki page, and view a recap of the central policy decisions made over the course of the versioning process.

The 4.0 versioning process has been a truly collaborative effort between the brilliant and dedicated network of legal and public licensing experts and the active, vocal open community. The 4.0 licenses, the public license development undertaking, and the Creative Commons organization are stronger because of the steadfast commitment of all participants.

With the 4.0 licenses published, we will be turning our attention to official translations of the legal code in partnership with our affiliate network and larger community. Translations of our new deeds are also underway, with a significant number already completed.

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who participated in making 4.0 a reality!

Category:Weblog

26 thoughts on “CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!”

  1. Great, congrats!

    But I want to give you a heads up that the license deeds for BY and BY-SA has a bug: The end of the text “…as long as you follow the license terms.” is hidden behind the Free cultural works image, so it looks like “…as long as you follow the license te”.

  3. IANAL, but to me it seems that work licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 cannot be used in collection without licensing collection under CC-BY-SA 4.0. The license text doesn’t even contain the word “collection” anymore.

    Does that mean that I can’t use CC-BY-SA 4.0 -licensed art in my game without licensing my game under CC-BY-SA 4.0 ?

    I really hope I’m wrong. Am I wrong?

  5. Thank you and congrats! We’ve been using Creative Commons licenses for our work ever since Trent Reznor started using them for Nine Inch Nails. Check us out! Black Milk for Dead Virginz: bmfdv.com

  7. Very cherishing! Huge thank you to each person involved. Now if we can just manage to import it straightforwardly even on the level of national “copyright” legislature in order to establish stronger foundation for the 21st Century creators and makers. Greetings from Slovakia.

  14. Gefeliciteerd, Auguri, Congratulations with this great step forward to make sharing creative works of all kinds easier, smoother and more effective. You guys (and dolls as well of course) are improving life online and IRL a lot for all of us. Keep up the good work.

    Thank y’all very much indeed.
    Happy Holidays & a prosperous 2014 and beyond

    Klaas V aka ZeaForUs, CIO of innocentisart.eu

  18. That`s great news, can I ask how will it affect me from version 3? I`m a web designer and sometimes I release my work (templates) for free.

  19. @William: as you hoped, you’re wrong! Nothing has changed for collections in 4.0.

    The mention was removed in the license because it was unnecessary–it wasn’t giving you additional rights to create collections beyond what you would have already had. You may still distribute CC-licensed works alongside works of any other license, so long as those works are not derivatives.

    See the FAQ entry: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#If_I_create_a_collection_that_includes_a_work_offered_under_a_CC_license.2C_which_license.28s.29_may_I_choose_for_the_collection.3F

    and the License Versions page:
    http://wiki.creativecommons.org/License_Versions#Licensing_of_collections

  26. “allows those who violate the license inadvertently to regain their rights automatically if the violation is corrected in a timely manner.”

    Not sure how this would really be enforced, countries such as India, China & Eastern European countries regularly flought copyright laws and we feel powerless to contest.

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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Policies pre 2010-08-04 - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Policies > Policies pre 2010-08-04

Policies pre 2010-08-04

Creative Commons Licensing

Except where noted otherwise below in our Trademark Policy, all content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. We do not assert a copyright in the text of our licenses. Modified versions of our licenses, however, should not be labeled as ‘Creative Commons’ licenses.

Website Disclaimer

This website provides general information about legal topics but it does not provide individual legal advice. Creative Commons Corporation is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. Using this website or sending us email does not create an attorney-client relationship. Creative Commons provides this general legal information on an ‘as-is’ basis. Creative Commons makes no warranties regarding the general legal information provided on this website, and disclaims liability for damages resulting from its use.

Notice: We do not license works for money or help collect royalties.

Creative Commons Trademark policy

The double C in a circle, the words and logotype “Creative Commons,” Creative Commons license buttons, and any combination of the foregoing, whether integrated into a larger whole or standing alone, are Creative Commons’ trademarks. You are authorized to use our trademarks on the terms and conditions below, and only on the further condition that you download the trademarks directly from our website.

Corporate Logo and LogotypeCorporate Logo and Logotype: Creative Commons licenses the use of its trademarked corporate logo (shown immediately to the right) on the condition that the trademark licensee use the mark to point to the Creative Commons homepage, http://creativecommons.org, and only to the Creative Commons homepage. Creative Commons retains full, unfettered, and sole discretion to revoke this trademark license for any reason whatsoever or for no specified reason.

Creative Commons Public Copyright License MarksCreative Commons Public Copyright License Marks: Creative Commons licenses the use of its trademarked CC logo in the context of its Public Copyright License Marks (shown immediately to the right) on the condition that licensee use the mark solely to point to a Creative Commons license or Commons deed on the Creative Commons server or otherwise uses it to describe the Creative Commons license that applies to a particular work; and provided that, to the extent the licensee is using the mark in an online environment, licensee does not alter or remove the hyperlink embedded in such logo as made available on Creative Commons webpage. Creative Commons retains full, unfettered, and sole discretion to revoke this trademark license for any reason whatsoever or for no specified reason. Creative Commons is particularly likely to revoke said license if, in its full, unfettered, and sole discretion, it finds that licensee’s use of the mark is likely to bring disrepute to licensor or its mark.

Public Domain Dedication MarkPublic Domain Dedication Mark: Creative Commons licenses the use of its trademarked CC logo in the context of its Public Domain Dedication Mark (shown immediately to the right) on the condition that licensee use the mark solely to point to the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication on the Creative Commons server or otherwise uses it to describe that the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication applies to a particular work; and provided that, to the extent the licensee uses the mark in an online environment, licensee does not alter or remove the hyperlink embedded in such logo as made available on Creative Commons webpage. Creative Commons retains full, unfettered, and sole discretion to revoke this trademark license for any reason whatsoever or for no specified reason. Creative Commons is particularly likely to revoke said license if, in its full, unfettered, and sole discretion, it finds that licensee’s use of the mark is likely to bring disrepute to licensor or its mark.

by nc sa ndCreative Commons License Buttons: The Creative Commons buttons that describe a key term of our license, such as BY, NC, ND, SA, Sampling, Sampling Plus and Noncommercial Sampling Plus may only be used in the context of pointing to a Creative Commons license on the Creative Commons server that includes that license term or to otherwise describe the Creative Commons license, that includes that license term and that applies to a particular work.

public domain Developing Nations sampling Founder's Copyright CC GNU-GPL CC GNU-LGPL Share MusicThe Creative Commons buttons that describe one of our customized licenses, such as the Public Domain, Sampling, Developing Nations, Founder’s Copyright, CC-GNU-GPL, CC-GNU-LGPL and Music Sharing, respectively, may only be used in the context of pointing to the relevant Creative Commons license on the Creative Commons server or to otherwise describe the Creative Commons license that applies to a particular work. Creative Commons retains full, unfettered, and sole discretion to revoke this license for any reason whatsoever or for no specified reason. Creative Commons is particularly likely to revoke said license if, in its full, unfettered, and sole discretion, it finds that licensee’s use of the mark is likely to bring disrepute to licensor or its mark.

Copyright infringement notifications

If you have reason to believe that any material or activity on a site controlled or operated by Creative Commons (such as creativecommons.org, sciencecommons.org or ccmixter.org) is infringing of the right(s) owned by you or someone else, for whom you have authority to act, please follow our DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure.

DISCLAIMER: Creative Commons provides public copyright licenses that anyone may use. We do not, however, control the use of Creative Commons licenses or have knowledge of whether the use of our licenses is authorized by the copyright owner. Additionally, Creative Commons has no control over third party websites, or over content belonging to persons or organizations other than Creative Commons. Any content hosted on a third party website is the responsibility of those sites, and not of Creative Commons, even if the content bears a Creative Commons license. If you are the copyright owner of content hosted on a third party site, and you have not authorized the use of your content, please contact the administrator of that website directly to have the content removed.

Other Content

The icons that make up our “Find” and “License” buttons that appear in the website header, visible on most pages, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license and form part of the Tango Desktop Project.

Other parts of the site may also include third party content that is licensed on different terms. Where that use is not a fair use, the different license terms of that content are either indicated or the content is acknowledged to be “Used with permission.”

#####EOF##### Creative Commons Platforms - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Creative Commons Platforms

Creative Commons Platforms

Over 1 billion CC-licensed works exist across millions of websites. The majority are hosted on content platforms that provide CC license options for their users.

CC platforms make it easy for users to discover and collaborate on images, video, music, research and educational texts. This page highlights some of the best known platforms for sharing CC content. Content on these platforms is searchable and shareable across the web thanks to CC licenses.

  • Flickr
  • Bandcamp
  • Wikipedia
  • YouTube
  • 500px
  • Internet Archive
  • Vimeo
  • Wikimedia Commons
  • Free Music Archive
  • Skills Commons
  • Boundless
  • Europeana
  • Tribe of Noise
  • Jamendo
  • MIT OpenCourseware
  • PLOS

Enabling the CC license suite for your users

We work to transform content platforms into vibrant, creative spaces powered by users. Creative Commons Integration, from A to Z is a toolkit for platforms that want to address the increasing user demand for sharing content under CC licenses. The toolkit covers everything a platform needs to add the CC license suite, including aligning terms of service, integrating CC licenses into the user interface, and clearly communicating about the different license options for users. The toolkit is free for anyone to implement; please use it as an onboarding tool and contact us with any questions.

Learn More

Content collaborations: light up the Commons

For Creative Commons, the global commons is a platform for cooperation. The size of the commons is not as important as how the works it contains are shared and used. Adding the CC license suite is just the first step in joining a vast global network of creators, companies, and institutions who are working to build context, gratitude, and other mechanisms for collaboration into the commons. We work with platforms who share our values to design tools and services that light up this universe of content and creators. Part of this is working to increase cross-platform mobility of content; another part is tracking growth and use of the content itself and reporting on major trends in our annual State of the Commons report. In addition to growth of content and users, what is your platform seeking to do and how can CC help you do it? Please get in touch if you are interested in any of the following:

  • Improved search, curation, metatagging, and content analytics to better support creators and users of the commons.
  • Providing data to be featured in our annual State of the Commons report.
  • Development of tools and services that build context, gratitude, and other mechanisms for collaboration into the commons.
  • Salons and related events exploring the topics of gratitude, cooperation, and its expression in social networks.
  • Other collaborations that facilitate greater cooperation and engagement in the commons.

#####EOF##### Commonwealth of Learning adopts CC BY-SA as part of new OER policy - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > Commonwealth of Learning adopts CC BY-SA as part of new OER policy

Commonwealth of Learning adopts CC BY-SA as part of new OER policy

Jane Park

June 14, 2011

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), an intergovernmental organization that “helps governments and institutions to expand the scope, scale and quality of learning,” has defined a new policy on open educational resources (OER). In addition to recognizing the importance of OER for teaching, learning, and collaboration among institutions and governments, the Commonwealth of Learning states that it will “encourage and support governments and institutions to establish supportive policy frameworks to introduce practices relating to OER.”

The new policy specifies that COL will “release its own materials under the most feasible open licenses including the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license.” The CC BY-SA license is currently used for more than 17 million Wikipedia articles in 270 languages, not to mention a plethora of other Wikimedia Foundation projects. Furthermore the CC BY license is compatible with CC BY-SA, and CC BY is used by OER platforms like Connexions and Curriki.org.

We are thrilled at this new development by COL, one of the leading intergovernmental organizations in education! Read the full policy here, and learn more about how IGOs benefit by adopting Creative Commons licenses for their own works.

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#####EOF##### Store - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Store

Store

michelle1_largeThe CC Store

Visit our store to get quality CC branded shirts, buttons stickers and more.

The Open Store

Browse extraordinary Creative Commons-licensed books, movies, and music on our Amazon store. Support CC by shopping with our referral links.

Featured Items

The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer

Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked…

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Shaking The Habitual by The Knife

The Knife was formed in Gothenburg Sweden by sister/brother duo Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer. Having released four albums as The Knife (including their…

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#####EOF##### ShareAlike compatibility - Creative Commons

ShareAlike compatibility

From Creative Commons
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FAQs about ShareAlike compatibility

What is ShareAlike compatibility and why is it important?

The ShareAlike licenses are designed to ensure that the freedoms associated with a licensed work survive as the work is adapted by others and that those freedoms attach to adaptations of the work as well. There are other copyleft licenses designed for this same purpose, but unfortunately, the works licensed under these other licenses are not compatible with works licensed under BY-SA. Creative Commons created the ShareAlike compatibility process as a means to solving this problem. The process allows CC to evaluate other copyleft licenses to determine if they are similar enough to BY-SA to meet licensor expectations to be deemed compatible. BY-SA Compatible Licenses are listed here.

How does ShareAlike compatibility work?

Once a license is declared compatible with BY-SA, anyone adapting BY-SA works can apply that license to their own contributions to the adaptation. With version 4.0, future versions of BY-SA are automatically compatible. Non-CC licenses have to undergo the ShareAlike compatibility process to be officially designated as a BY-SA Compatible License by CC. In either case, if someone applies a compatible license to an adaptation, both the original BY-SA license and the compatible license apply to the adaptation and must be followed. However, downstream users of the adaptation may choose to look ‘only at the compatible license (that is, the last license applied) to determine what their attribution and ShareAlike obligations are under both licenses when they reuse the work.

What does one-way or two-way compatibility mean?

One-way compatibility means that you may adapt work under one license (X) and apply a second license (Y) to your own contributions, but you may not adapt work under the Y license and apply the X license to your contributions. For example, CC BY is one-way compatible with BY-SA. You may adapt a BY work and apply BY-SA to your contributions, but you may not adapt a BY-SA work and apply BY to your contributions.

Two-way compatibility means that you may adapt work under one license (X) and apply a second license (Y), and vice versa.

For ShareAlike compatibility, a license listed as a ShareAlike Compatible License on the compatible licenses page is two-way compatible unless otherwise noted.

What licenses are compatible with BY-SA?

Different versions of BY-SA have different compatibility mechanisms. Each version is addressed below.

  • For BY-SA 4.0, all future versions of BY-SA and all ports (if any) of BY-SA 4.0 or later are automatically compatible, as well as licenses explicitly deemed compatible pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process
  • For BY-SA 3.0, all future versions of BY-SA and all ports of BY-SA 3.0 or later are automatically compatible, as well as licenses explicitly deemed compatible pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process
  • For BY-SA 2.0, all future versions of BY-SA and all ports of BY-SA 2.0 or later are automatically compatible
  • For BY-SA 1.0, only BY-SA 1.0 is compatible.

Why did CC choose the Free Art License to be the first BY-SA Compatible License?

Drafted in 2000, the Free Art License was one of the original copyleft licenses designed for content, not code. The latest version (1.3) was published in 2007 with an eye toward compatibility with CC licenses. The FAL 1.3 is very similar to BY-SA 4.0 in spirit and substance, and raised no significant obstacles to compatibility. For a detailed explanation of the policy decisions involved in the compatibility determination, see here.

Why did CC decide to pursue compatibility with a software license (GPLv3)?

In some niche areas such as gaming, content is increasingly blended with code in ways that make it difficult for downstream users to differentiate between the two. Developers in these fields sometimes abstain from integrating BY-SA content into GPL-licensed software projects because of potential conflict between the two copyleft licenses, or are adapting and incorporating BY-SA content without accounting for the incompatibility between the licenses. This obstacle to reuse and remix of BY-SA content in projects published under a license so similar in spirit and substance was at the heart of the problem the compatibility mechanism in BY-SA was designed to solve.

Together with the Free Software Foundation, CC has pursued a limited form of compatibility to address the problem. Because the GPLv3 is designed for software and CC discourages use of its licenses for software, there are special considerations for those seeking to take advantage of this compatibility mechanism. Please read those considerations carefully before deciding to take advantage of the one-way compatibility mechanism.

Example compatibility scenarios

BY-SA 4.0 story is adapted into a screenplay and FAL 1.3 is applied to the original contributions
  • both licenses apply, but reusers of the screenplay can attribute both authors and comply with their ShareAlike obligations according to FAL terms
FAL 1.3 image is adapted and BY-SA 4.0 is applied to the original contributions
  • only BY-SA 4.0 applies to the adaptation; reusers of the BY-SA adaptation may look only at the terms of BY-SA 4.0 to determine their attribution and ShareAlike obligations
BY-SA 3.0 song is synched with your original video and BY-SA 4.0 is applied to the original contributions
  • both licenses apply, and reusers of the video must comply with the terms of both versions to the extent they differ [note: this is unlikely to have much practical significance; see here for details on how the license versions differ]
BY-SA 4.0 content is adapted and incorporated into a GPLv3-licensed game and GPLv3 is applied to the original contributions
  • both licenses apply, but reusers of the GPL game can attribute and ShareAlike according to the GPLv3 terms
Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=ShareAlike_compatibility&oldid=114400"

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#####EOF##### Policies - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Policies

Policies

Creative Commons maintains and publishes policies that apply to the use of our websites, content and software that we publish, our trademarks, and to those participating in the Creative Commons Global Network, including Individual and Institutional Members, as well as non-Members who participate in CC projects around the world. Note that some of these policies are maintained on other website pages but can be viewed by clicking on the relevant link below.

The following policies are applicable to anyone who uses our websites.

The Creative Commons Trademark Policy applies to anyone who uses the CC trademarks.

When you participate in the Creative Commons Global Network (“CCGN”) as a member or non-member, in addition to the generally applicable policies on this page, the following legal policies apply to you as you engage with CC and the network:

CC’s Licensing Statement for Content and Software Code

Other than the Creative Commons trademarks (licensed subject to the Trademark Policy below) and the text of Creative Commons legal tools and human-readable Commons deeds (dedicated to the public domain as specified below), all content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license unless otherwise marked.

Software: All of the software code we create is free software. Please check our code repository for the specific license that applies to software code you wish to use.
Legal text (we call this legal code) and Commons deeds: Creative Commons makes the legal code of its licenses and the CC0 Public Domain Dedication available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. CC also makes the Commons deeds associated with its licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication, and the Public Domain Mark available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. This allows anyone to reuse those texts for any purpose; however, CC reserves fully and unconditionally all trademark and branding rights associated with the licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication, and the Commons deeds. See the Trademark Policy below for more detail.

Creative Commons Trademark Policy

Trademarks are words, graphic designs, or other indicia that identify the source of a product or service. Creative Commons uses a variety of trademarks. Some Creative Commons trademarks serve the purpose of (i) communicating the type of legal tool chosen by the rights holder and/or (ii) indicating that the creator has applied a Creative Commons license to her work. Our registered trademarks and other trademarks include CREATIVE COMMONS (regardless of stylization, capitalization, translation, or other presentation), CC (including the CC in a circle logo (the “CC Logo”) and CC standing alone), CC+ (within a circle or standing alone) and CCPlus, CC0, all of the Creative Commons license and public domain buttons and icons, and any combination of the foregoing, whether integrated into a larger whole or standing alone. This also includes all of the CC trademarks incorporated into Unicode and any other similar standard.

You are authorized to use our trademarks subject to this Trademark Policy, and only on the further condition that you download images of the trademarks directly from our website or apply them through an authorized provider, including software that incorporates the trademarks in Unicode. You are not authorized to use any modified versions of our trademarks, except that you may use a different color for the CC logo and its background so long as the two colors chosen have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1.

Creative Commons retains the right to revoke any trademark license for any reason or for no specified reason. Creative Commons is particularly likely to revoke a license if, in its sole discretion, it finds that your use of the trademark is likely to bring disrepute to Creative Commons or any of its trademarks, or confuses the public. For the avoidance of doubt, you do not need our permission to use our corporate logo for referential use (e.g., to refer to Creative Commons as an organization), provided that such use does not imply endorsement by or association with Creative Commons.

For the avoidance of doubt, no member of the CC affiliate network or of the CC Global Network, including chapters, is authorized to use CC’s trademarks except in compliance with this policy. This includes, without limitation, that no use of CC trademarks may be used for projects or activities that are not expressly approved in advance by Creative Commons (via legal@creativecommons.org). Creative Commons intends to update these policies in advance of the CC Global Summit 2018, and once updated will apply to all members of the CC Global Network.

Modification of CC Licenses: To prevent confusion and maintain consistency, you are not allowed to use CREATIVE COMMONS, CC, the CC Logo, or any other Creative Commons trademarks with modified versions of any of our legal tools or Commons deeds, including modifications that do not modify the legal code directly but that further restrict or condition the rights granted by the particular legal tool. These modifications are often contained in a website’s terms of use, and where they are present you may not suggest that you are offering works under a Creative Commons legal tool. For the avoidance of doubt, you may not use any CC trademarks with unofficial language translations of CC licenses. See this page for more information.

Creative Commons Public Copyright License Marks: Creative Commons licenses the use of its public copyright license marks, which include the CC Logo, on the conditions that you use the marks solely to describe the Creative Commons license that applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or a hyperlink to the corresponding Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Public Domain Dedication Marks: Creative Commons licenses the use of its public domain dedication marks, on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe that the CC0 Public Domain Dedication applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or a hyperlink to the Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Public Domain Mark: Creative Commons licenses the use of its trademarked Public Domain Mark badge on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe that the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the Public Domain Mark on the Creative Commons server.

Creative Commons License Buttons and Icons: Creative Commons licenses the use of its button marks that describe a particular legal tool and its icon marks that describe a key license element, such as BY, NC, ND, and SA, on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe the Creative Commons legal tool that applies to a particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the relevant Commons deed on the Creative Commons server.

Legacy marks: Creative Commons has retired some of its prior legal tools, all of which have associated trademarks, such as the Developing Nations License, the Sampling License, and Founder’s Copyright. Although these tools have been retired and are no longer recommended for use, they are still legally effective as to works to which they are applied. Therefore, those trademarks may only be used under the terms and conditions of this Trademark Policy. Creative Commons licenses the use of its legacy marks on the conditions that you use the mark solely to describe the Creative Commons legal tool that applies to the particular work and, in a manner reasonable to the medium and context, include the URI or hyperlink to the relevant Commons deed on the Creative Commons server. Note that legacy marks are not available for download on our website.

Additional permissions: In addition to the permissions granted in advance to the public as set forth above, Creative Commons may agree to grant additional permissions upon request. Please submit any such request to legal@creativecommons.org. Except as specifically stated above or otherwise set forth in a written agreement with you, no additional permissions are granted.

Merchandising Policy: If you would like to use the Creative Commons or other CC trademarks on clothing or other merchandise, you must first receive permission from Creative Commons. Please submit your request to legal@creativecommons.org.

CCGN Internet Services Policy

This Policy governs the operation of websites, social media accounts, and mailing lists for CC Chapters in the Creative Commons Global Network.

Chapter Websites

To avoid confusion, all Chapters should have one principal public source of online information about the Chapter and its activities. Chapters can choose to use a subdomain provided and hosted by CC HQ, or Chapters can use a domain name of their own and host/manage the site themselves. If Chapters use their own domain name, the subdomain will be forwarded, so that everyone coming to creativecommons.org can find the site.

                       Subdomains: Creative Commons will establish a subdomain on its main website for each Chapter. The sub-domain will consist of xx.creativecommons.org, where xx is the top-level domain extension for the Project’s jurisdiction (e.g., ca.creativecommons.org). The subdomain will be maintained by CC HQ as part of a WordPress multisite setup. Each Chapter is asked to designate at least one representative to be on point to correspond with CC about administrator access privileges to the subdomain.

                       Top-Level Domain Names (“TLDs”) and Country Code Top-Level Domains (“ccTLD”): Chapters may decide to use a separate domain name. We ask that such website holders hold the domain name and website in trust for Creative Commons, and add Creative Commons as a technical contact on the WHOIS for the site. If, at any time, the Chapter decides that the website and domain should be operated by another person or institution or retired, the website holder must cooperate in the transfer or lapse of the website and domain, as applicable. Creative Commons reserves the right to decide that a TLD must be transferred to Creative Commons or shut down in order to avoid trademark confusion, if a Chapter was unable to continue operating, or for any other reason.

Chapter Website Content

All website content on Chapter Websites should be made available under a CC license, ideally CC BY 4.0 or CC0. Chapters should establish their own guidelines for continued operation and updating of their Chapter Website, consistent with the Chapter Guidelines (https://github.com/creativecommons/global-network-strategy/blob/master/docs/chapters-guidelines.md) and other CC policies. All Chapter Websites must include a prominent disclaimer that the website does not provide legal advice. CC reserves the right to request the removal of any content that fails (in CC’s sole discretion) to comply with this or other CC policies.

Chapter Website Administration

As part of the main Creative Commons website, the subdomains are managed by Creative Commons and therefore subject to all of the policies of the CC site, including the DMCA policy, terms of service, and privacy policy. Every participant in a Chapter agrees to comply with all such policies and will take any actions requested by CC in order to ensure compliance. Unlike subdomains, Chapters that choose to operate TLDs in accordance with the above are alone responsible for ensuring that they establish and maintain terms of service, a privacy policy, and any other policies necessary to comply with applicable laws, including copyright and data privacy laws.

Chapter Social Media Accounts

Chapters may establish and maintain a single account on a reasonable number of public-facing social media platforms on behalf of the Chapter. The Chapter should track the accounts, platforms, and login information as they are established, and alert CC as to which accounts it has and who operates them on behalf of the Chapter. The Chapter is responsible for ensuring consistency and quality in the content and operation of those accounts, and may establish guidelines in accordance with the Chapter Guidelines (https://github.com/creativecommons/global-network-strategy/blob/master/docs/chapters-standards.md) to achieve this.

Chapter Mailing Lists

If a Chapter wants to set up and maintain a mailing list for its activities, the Chapter may use the services provided by Creative Commons. Whether or not using CC-provided mailing lists, everyone participating in a Chapter must comply with data privacy laws when dealing with participant email addresses and other personal information.

Chapter Github Repositories

Each Chapter may request that Creative Commons open one repository on their behalf on CC’s organization account on Github. The Chapter is responsible for ensuring that the repository is used in accordance with Github terms and applicable law.

Note: This policy may be updated from time to time following consultation and collaboration with the Global Network Council.

Chapter Logo Policy

Every CC Chapter around the world, once established in accordance with the Charter and other applicable rules and guidelines, may create a single logo to designate their particular country chapter (“Chapter Logo”). The Chapter Logo must include our “Creative Commons” name and/or our CC in a circle logo in their original font and style.

Chapter Logo Approval: The Chapter Lead must submit the Chapter Logo to legal@creativecommons.org for approval. For the avoidance of doubt, this approval requirement applies even in cases where a Chapter selects a logo that was previously used in connection with a CC affiliate team under the prior network governance model.

Use of the Chapter Logo: We give you permission to use the approved Chapter Logo of the CC Chapter in which you are a participant, solely in order to promote and further the CC-related work done by your CC Chapter consistent with the Charter [https://creativecommons.org/network/charter/], the rules established by the CC Global Network Council, and the policies and positions established by Creative Commons. We recognize that you and the other individuals and institutions involved in your CC Chapter are also engaged in jobs, projects, and activities that are tangentially or unrelated to CC.  For the avoidance of doubt, you and others involved in the CC Chapter are not entitled to use the Chapter Logo for any purposes other than those stated above.

We will continue to work with you to ensure that you and others involved in the CC Chapter use the Chapter Logo in a manner consistent with the principles and policies of CC.  You agree to fully cooperate with and take any actions requested by CC relating to all usage of the Chapter Logo by anyone involved in your CC Chapter. It is understood that CC can end this permission at any time in its sole discretion, including if at any time your status as a participant ends, the CC Chapter becomes inactive, or if you or others involved in the CC Chapter fail to cooperate with or adhere to the policies of CC.  

You further agree to comply with any policies set forth by your Chapter as to how the Chapter Logo may or may not be used. In the event of a conflict between a guideline set forth by your Chapter and a policy of Creative Commons, the Creative Commons policy will govern.

Ownership of the Chapter Logo: All uses of the Chapter Logo will inure solely to Creative Commons. You and the others involved in your CC Chapter will obtain no ownership or other rights to the Chapter Logo.  You agree not to contest, oppose, impair, or challenge CC’s ownership of the Chapter Logos or any of its other trademarks. You will not register or attempt to register the Chapter Logo as a trademark in any jurisdiction and will not oppose CC’s registration or use of the Chapter Logo.

Page last updated: 29 May 2018

#####EOF##### ShareAlike compatibility: GPLv3 - Creative Commons

ShareAlike compatibility: GPLv3

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This page documents the primary decisions made by Creative Commons when considering the GNU General Public License version 3 (the "GPL") for one-way ShareAlike compatibility pursuant to the compatibility process and criteria.

Timeline

  • The GPL was proposed by CC and the Free Software Foundation as a candidate for one-way compatibility on 29 January 2015.
  • CC published a preliminary analysis of compatibility with GPL on its wiki.
  • Public discussion period ran from 29 January to 2 April 2015.
  • Compatibility determination published on __ September 2015 and GPLv3 added to the CC compatible license page

License texts analyzed

How one-compatibility operates

When someone creates an adaptation of a BY-SA licensed work and includes it in a GPLv3-licensed project, both licenses apply and downstream users must comply with both licenses. However, Section 2(a)(5)(B) of BY-SA 4.0 allows anyone who receives the adapted material downstream to satisfy the conditions of both BY-SA and GPLv3 (i.e. attribution and ShareAlike) in the manner dictated by the GPLv3.

People may *not* adapt a GPLv3-licensed work and use BY-SA to license their contributions. This is not allowed by GPLv3. Thus, this compatibility determination only allows movement one way, from BY-SA 4.0 to GPLv3.

For more information, see the compatibility-specific FAQs and explanatory information here. We also encourage you to read this list of considerations before applying the GPLv3 as the adapter’s license.

Gatekeeping determination

In 2008, Creative Commons published the CC Attribution-ShareAlike Statement of Intent, in which CC articulated its intentions as steward for the SA licenses. In point 4 of the statement, CC commits that "any candidate for compatibility must also satisfy the definition of a Free Cultural License set out in the Definition of Free Cultural Works." This criteria serves as the initial gatekeeping factor for all candidate licenses.

The General Public License v.3 is listed as a Free Cultural License, and conforms to the Open Definition.

Policy decisions

Attribution

The specific attribution and marking requirements in the two licenses vary slightly.

BY-SA 4.0 requires:

  1. creator and attribution parties (if supplied)
  2. copyright notice (if supplied)
  3. license notice (if supplied)
  4. disclaimer notice (if supplied)
  5. URI or link to the licensed material (if supplied)
  6. indicate and link to license

If you change the work, BY-SA also requires you to indicate that you did so and retain any notice on the work about previous changes made to it. BY-SA requires reusers to remove attribution if practicable when requested by the licensor.

GPLv3 requires:

  1. copyright notice
  2. license notices and notice of Section 7 additional conditions (if supplied)
  3. notices about lack of warranty (if supplied)
  4. copy of the license

If you change the work, GPL requires you include a prominent notice to indicate that you did so, along with the relevant date. It also requires special notices for certain interactive user interfaces. GPLv3 does not have an attribution removal clause.

When BY-SA 4.0 content is adapted and used in a GPLv3-licensed project, the adapter has to comply with the BY-SA attribution and marking requirements. However, Section 2(a)(5)(B) of BY-SA 4.0 enables downstream reusers of the GPL-licensed project to look to the GPL to satisfy their obligations under both licenses. CC determined that GPL-style attribution would satisfy the expectations of BY-SA licensors.

License scope

The tone and scope of the two licenses differ, due largely to the fact that the GPLv3 was designed for use with software and software-like works. Both licenses are primarily designed to license copyright, but each license also covers some rights closely related to copyright. GPL covers “copyright-like laws that apply to other kinds of works, such as semiconductor masks,” while BY-SA covers “Copyright and Similar Rights,” which is defined to include neighboring rights, sui generis database rights, and other closely-related rights.

The most significant difference in license scope is the treatment of patent rights. BY-SA expressly reserves patent rights to the licensor, while GPLv3 expressly includes a patent grant from each contributor.

Because patent rights are expressly excluded from BY-SA, there is no reliable claim of an implied license to do things with a BY-SA licensed work that implicate patent rights. From a compatibility perspective, this means that when a BY-SA work is adapted and included in a GPL-licensed project, downstream users of the project would not have patent rights (if any) to the adapted BY-SA work. (Although the GPL includes a patent license, the scope of rights licensed by the BY-SA licensor cannot be unilaterally expanded by an adapter who choses to apply the GPL, just as it is not expanded when an adapter applies a later version of BY-SA that licenses more rights than the original.)

This creates the possibility that a downstream user of a GPL project will mistakenly assume that all patent rights are treated as they are in GPLv3 when in fact they are not. We have determined, however, that this should not prevent a determination of one-way compatibility because it is largely an academic problem. Rarely (if ever) would a BY-SA work be subject to patent rights that would be implicated by reproducing or adapting the content.

Source

The GPL requires that works be distributed with source or that source be made available (with “source” being the preferred form for making modifications to the work). BY-SA does not impose a similar requirement. Instead, BY-SA licensors are free to distribute their works in any format, whether or not modifiable.

With one-way compatibility to the GPL, no new obligations are imposed under the BY-SA license, either upon the original licensor or any downstream adapter who wishes to license their contributions under the GPL instead of BY-SA. However, those who adapt BY-SA works and choose to license their contributions under the GPL do, however, have to comply with the GPL obligation to distribute or make available the work in the preferred form for making modifications. If an adapter cannot provide or make available source either because she never received the work in modifiable format from the BY-SA licensor or cannot convert the content to modifiable format, then that person cannot take advantage of the one-way compatibility declaration and use the GPLv3 for her contributions.

Effective technological measures

BY-SA prohibits application of ETMs by licensees if those measures would prevent others from exercising their rights under the license. In contrast, the GPL does not explicitly prohibit application of DRM and other ETMs. Instead, it addresses any potential lockdown of licensed works by requiring distribution of source code in a modifiable form.

This difference is not problematic, because in order to comply with GPLv3 the adapter must provide source. As stated in the previous section, if an adapter cannot provide or make source available, she cannot take advantage of the one-way compatibility declaration and may not use GPLv3 for her contributions.

License termination

Both licenses terminate automatically upon breach. BY-SA 4.0 is reinstated automatically if the violation is cured within 30 days of discovery, whether it is the first violation or one of several subsequent violations. GPLv3 is reinstated automatically for first-time violators who cure within 30 days of receiving notice of the violation from the copyright holder, and is reinstated after subsequent violations if it has been corrected for 60 days without the licensor's objection. This difference means that a user of a combined BY-SA adaptation and GPL work may have the right to use some portion but not all portions of the larger work, depending on whether rights have been reinstated under the respective licenses. In practice, however, this difference is not overly problematic and is not be an obstacle to declaring one-way compatibility, since the large majority of licensors and licensees in both communities resolve license violations amicably.

Option to comply with later versions

GPLv3 gives licensees the option to comply with a later version of the GPL if the licensor has so specified, or to use *any* version of the GPL if no version number was specified, regardless of whether the work has been adapted. BY-SA 4.0 allows licensees to comply with the conditions of future versions of BY-SA, but only if that version was applied to an adaptation of the work. Because this compatibility determination is limited to version 3 of the GPL, reusers that adapt BY-SA 4.0 content and incorporate it into GPL-licensed projects are only able to use GPLv3 unless and until other GPL versions are declared compatible. With solid education for both communities and encouragement of clear marking by licensors, we do not feel this is an obstacle to compatibility.

GPL licensors who are concerned with enabling use under later versions do have the option of using the proxy provision in the GPLv3 to address this limitation. Section 14 of GPLv3 allows licensors to specify a proxy to determine whether future versions of the GPL can be used. Therefore, if someone adapts a BY-SA 4.0 work and incorporates it into a GPLv3-licensed project, they can specify Creative Commons as their proxy (via http://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses) so that if and when Creative Commons determines that a future version of the GPL is a compatible license, the adapted and combined work could be used under that later version of GPL.

Related policy notes

Creative Commons consulted extensively with the Free Software Foundation during the 4.0 versioning process, as well as throughout the compatibility process on the policy matters described above. The final determination and policy statements above reflect the best interpretations by both stewards of their respective licenses.

Considerations for adapters applying the GPLv3

Because of the limited one-way nature of this compatibility determination and because GPLv3 is designed for software, there are a few particular considerations to take into account before applying the GPLv3 as the adapter’s license when adapting BY-SA 4.0 works.

  • This one-way compatibility mechanism with GPLv3 is not for general use. It was designed to help solve a specific problem for those working in niche areas where content is adapted and melded with code. Please take advantage of it only when you are adapting BY-SA 4.0 works and incorporating the adaptation into GPLv3 software in ways that make it difficult or impossible for downstream users to distinguish the content from code.
  • BY-SA does not include a patent license. We recommend against applying GPLv3 if you have any reason to suspect that any patent rights held by the original BY-SA 4.0 licensor could pose a problem for downstream users.
  • BY-SA 4.0 works may not be available in the preferred form for making modifications. Do not apply the GPLv3 if you cannot comply with the source requirement in the GPL.
  • This compatibility determination only applies to BY-SA 4.0 and GPLv3. You must specify version 3 of the GPL when redistributing a GPL project into which BY-SA 4.0 content is adapted. Please see above for information on how to deal with this if you are particularly concerned with enabling compatibility with future versions of the GPL.

Notes

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=ShareAlike_compatibility:_GPLv3&oldid=114465"

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#####EOF##### License Versions - Creative Commons

License Versions

From Creative Commons
Revision as of 18:33, 4 January 2016 by CCID-mattl (talk | contribs)
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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

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#####EOF##### CC0 FAQ - Creative Commons

CC0 FAQ

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These FAQs contain information that you should familiarize yourself with before using CC0. The information provided below is not exhaustive – it may not cover important issues that may affect you.

The FAQs are intended to supplement, not replace, our existing FAQs. You are encouraged to review those FAQs as well as our list of issues to consider before using CC0 or any of our other legal tools or licenses. You should also read the CC0 legal code carefully and understand what it means before applying it to your work or using a CC0’d work.

Please note: Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. The information provided below is not a substitute for legal advice and is not complete. Please consult your own legal advisor if you have any questions or concerns about the information provided below, about CC0 or about Creative Commons licenses and tools generally.

Questions about CC0 generally

What is CC0?

http://i.creativecommons.org/p/zero/1.0/88x31.png

Copyright and other laws throughout the world automatically extend copyright protection to works of authorship and databases, whether the author or creator wants those rights or not. CC0 gives those who want to give up those rights a way to do so, to the fullest extent allowed by law. Once the creator or a subsequent owner of a work applies CC0 to a work, the work is no longer his or hers in any meaningful sense under copyright law. Anyone can then use the work in any way and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, subject to other laws and the rights others may have in the work or how the work is used. Think of CC0 as the "no rights reserved" option.

CC0 is a useful tool for clarifying that you do not claim copyright in a work anywhere in the world. Because copyright laws differ by jurisdiction, you might be granted an automatic copyright in jurisdictions that you may not be aware of. By using CC0, you signal to the public that you relinquish any such rights.

How does it work?

A person using CC0 (called the “affirmer” in the legal code) dedicates a work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her copyright and neighboring and related rights, if any, in a work, to the fullest extent permitted by law. If the waiver isn’t effective for any reason, then CC0 acts as a license from the affirmer granting the public an unconditional, irrevocable, non exclusive, royalty free license to use the work for any purpose.

What is the difference between CC0 and the Public Domain Mark ("PDM")?

CC0 and PDM differ in important respects and have distinct purposes. CC0 is intended for use only by authors or holders of copyright and related or neighboring rights (including sui generis database rights), in connection with works that are still subject to those rights in one or more jurisdictions. PDM, on the other hand, can be used by anyone, and is intended for use with works that are already free of known copyright restrictions throughout the world. The tools also differ in terms of their effect when applied to a work. CC0 is legally operative in the sense that when it is applied, it changes the copyright status of the work, effectively relinquishing all copyright and related or neighboring rights worldwide. PDM is not legally operative in any respect – it is intended to function as a label, marking a work that is already free of known copyright restrictions.

Review a chart comparing the attributes of CC0 and PDM, and Learn more about the Public Domain Mark.

Questions for those thinking about applying CC0 to their work(s)

Who can use CC0?

Anyone who owns or could possibly hold copyright and neighboring and related rights (such as database rights) in a work anywhere in the world can use CC0 to give up those rights. But please be careful. CC0 is a one-way street. Once you apply CC0 to your work you can’t change your mind later and re-assert copyright or database rights over the work. In some cases, it’s hard to decide if something qualifies for copyright protection (for example, a database of mostly factual data). Even then, CC0 can be a useful way to assure others that you have committed to surrendering any possible copyright protection you may have.

Even though are you not making any warranties of copyright ownership under CC0, keep in mind that you are still responsible to any third parties who may have existing rights in your work when you distribute the work. For example, if your work contains another person’s work made available under a CC Attribution license, you will need to identify that work separately, attribute the author and provide the license. Likewise, for any other license(s), you will need to ensure that you are in compliance before distributing the work. Of course, if you do not have permission to distribute a work belonging to someone else, you will need to seek appropriate permission from the copyright owner before you use CC0.

How do I apply CC0 to my work?

Our chooser will lead you through process. When completed, you will be provided with HTML code that you can copy and paste into your website. Please be aware that it is up to you, the affirmer, to publish your work using CC0 by posting it to your website or elsewhere. Creative Commons does not publish any works and cannot accept responsibility for doing so.

What are the benefits of including the information requested by the CC0 chooser?

Any information you provide when using the chooser will be included in the rendered CC0 text placed on the work as well as included in the machine-readable code. Potential users of your work can then use that information to find out more about your work. Particularly valuable to potential users is the jurisdiction from which you are offering the work under CC0, and we encourage you provide that information whenever possible. Please keep in mind, however, that the jurisdiction you select is not a choice of law or forum selection clause (there are no choice of law or forum selection clauses in CC0).

May I apply CC0 to computer software? If so, is there a recommended implementation?

Yes, CC0 is suitable for dedicating your copyright and related rights in computer software to the public domain, to the fullest extent possible under law. Unlike CC licenses, which should not be used for software, CC0 is compatible with many software licenses, including the GPL. However, CC0 has not been approved by the Open Source Initiative and does not license or otherwise affect any patent rights you may have. You may want to consider using an approved OSI license that does so instead of CC0, such as GPL 3.0 or Apache 2.0.

CC and the Free Software Foundation suggest that if you choose to apply CC0 to software, you include the following notice at the top of each file:

<PROGRAM NAME> - <DESCRIPTION>
Written in <YEAR> by <AUTHOR NAME> <AUTHOR E-MAIL ADDRESS>
[other author/contributor lines as appropriate]
To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright and related and neighboring rights to this software to the public domain worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along with this software. If not, see <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.

It is also recommended that you include a file called COPYING (or COPYING.txt) containing the CC0 legalcode as plain text.

Does CC0 require others who use my work to give me attribution?

No, and that's a big difference between CC0 and our licenses. Unlike our licenses, there are no conditions contained in CC0. Just like anything in the public domain, it will be possible for others to use or adapt it however they wish without attribution. However, this does not mean that you cannot request attribution in accordance with community or professional norms and standards.

When you choose CC0, requests for attribution are not binding through legal requirements (i.e., as a condition of a copyright license) but can be based on ethical and professional norms, such as those that apply to scholarship and science. These norms can be well articulated, widely held, and self-policing, as is the case with citation standards in the academic community (which are based on ethics and professional reputation, not legal conditions). However, in some instances, as with new technologies or emerging disciplines, the exact implementation of these norms in a particular context requires further consensus-building and articulation.

Does CC0 really eliminate all copyright and related rights, everywhere?

Please don’t take the 0 (zero) in the name “CC0” literally – no legal instrument can ever eliminate all copyright interests in a work in every jurisdiction.

CC0 doesn’t affect two very important categories of copyright and related rights. First, just like our licenses, CC0 does not affect other persons’ rights in the work or in how it is used, such as publicity or privacy rights. Second, the laws of some jurisdictions don’t allow authors and copyright owners to waive all of their own rights, such as moral rights. When the waiver doesn’t work for any reason CC0 acts as a free public license replicating much of intended effect of the waiver, although sometimes even licensing those rights isn’t effective. It varies jurisdiction by jurisdiction.

While we can't be certain that all copyright and related rights will indeed be surrendered everywhere, we are confident that CC0 lets you sever the legal ties between you and your work to the greatest extent legally permissible.

What kinds of rights am I surrendering when I use CC0?

You are surrendering your copyright and neighboring and related rights in a work, including any database rights you may have. You are also surrendering your own publicity and privacy rights. If your image is captured in the work, for example, you cannot later complain that someone is using it in violation of those rights. In other jurisdictions, you may not be able to waive all of your copyright and neighboring and related rights. Moral rights and unknown rights are two examples of rights that may be difficult to waive in some jurisdictions. When waiver isn’t possible, those rights are licensed under CC0 to the extent allowed by law, although again, sometimes those rights cannot be licensed in advance or at all.

What are neighboring rights?

Neighboring rights consist of a hodgepodge of rights granted by statute in addition to traditional copyright. Performing artists, record producers and those involved in radio and television broadcasting are often holders of neighboring rights, which may include distribution, performance and/or exploitation rights. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to protect these rights; other jurisdictions offer those protections by separate statute as neighboring or related rights.

When you surrender your neighboring rights using CC0, you do not impact the copyrights or related rights of others, though. For example, if you apply CC0 to a sound recording to which you hold copyright, you surrender your exclusive right to digitally perform that sound recording. But your use of CC0 would not affect the copyright, if any, retained by the composer of the music. Neighboring rights differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

What are database rights?

Databases may contain facts that, in and of themselves, are not protected by copyright law. The copyright laws of some jurisdictions cover database design and structure, however, and some jurisdictions like the European Union have enacted special laws to protect databases when they are not protected under applicable copyright law. CC0 is intended to cover all copyright and database laws, so that however database rights are protected (under copyright or otherwise), those rights are all surrendered.

Can I control how my work is being used once I publish it using CC0?

Not really. CC0 is about achieving the effect of placing works in the public domain. Just like anything already in the public domain today, anybody will be able to use your work for any purpose, even in ways you may find distasteful or objectionable. They can also make money off of your work, and they may give you credit or they may not. One aspect you retain control over, however, is the use of the work by others with your trademarks. CC0 does not surrender any trademark rights you have. If others want to associate your trademark with a work you distribute under CC0, they need to ask your permission first as required by trademark law.

If you are worried about how your work will be used, if you want to legally require attribution, or if you don't want people to make money off of your work, then you should not use CC0 and instead consider using one of our licenses.

What about other IP related rights, such as trademark and patent rights?

CC0 very clearly states that trademark and patent rights of the affirmer are not affected – CC0’s sole reach is copyright and related and neighboring rights, including database rights. Trademarks rights are not affected because creators who use CC0 should be able to protect the quality of products that are associated with their trademark (for example, by preventing a subsequent user of the work from leading others to believe the work in its subsequent use and/or form is associated with or endorsed by the affirmer). So if your primary concern is to ensure the quality and integrity of products associated with your name or your project, then trademark, combined with CC0, may be an option for you.

Patents are fundamentally more challenging. One of our goals at Creative Commons is to encourage use and dissemination of information in a way that encourages others to build upon it, sometimes in surprising and unexpected ways. We can accomplish that objective through a copyright-only solution, without introducing the complexities associated with patent rights. We also wanted to keep CC0 as simple as possible, consistent with its original design goals. We concluded that any perceived benefits of including a patent waiver were significantly outweighed by the downsides of its inclusion.

Does using CC0 affect my ability to disclaim warranties?

No. CC0 explicitly disclaims "representations or warranties of any kind" (see 4(b)). This is not affected by CC0's abandonment of all copyright-related rights to the extent legally possible. Disposing of an asset (whether or not gratis) often involves a statement by the prior owner as to the state of the asset disposed of such that the owner has no responsibility/liability for things that may go wrong once the asset is no longer theirs. As with a quit claim used with real property, with CC0 a copyright holder abandons or quits their interest without any further obligation, including without warranty.

Questions for those thinking about using a CC0’d work

Can anyone use a work that is distributed under CC0?

Yes. CC0 doesn’t restrict who can use a CC0’d work. Once applied, anyone can use the work in any way and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, subject to rights others may have in the work or how it’s used, as well as subject to any other laws or restrictions that may apply.

Do I have to attribute the person who applied CC0 to their work?

No, there is no legal requirement that you attribute the affirmer, only an expectation that you will voluntarily do so if requested. The CC0 deed provides HTML code that can be copy and pasted into your webpage to easily cite the author and the work, if that information has been provided by the affirmer.

Why do some works indicate the jurisdiction from which the work is being published?

The CC0 license chooser gives affirmers the opportunity to indicate the jurisdiction from which the work is being offered. If provided by the affirmer, this information is included in the rendered CC0 text that is placed on the work as well as included in the machine-readable code.

The jurisdiction from which the work is being offered is one fact that helps users know what they can and cannot do with a CC0'd work. There are other important facts that impact what rights the affirmer is surrendering and what rights the user has (another, for example, is where the user is located), but the jurisdiction from which the work is offered is one of the more important pieces of information that helps users usefully take advantage of a CC0’d work.

Be careful, though. The jurisdiction, if selected by the affirmer, is not a choice of law or forum selection clause (there are no choice of law or forum selection clauses in CC0). Nor should it be relied upon as definitive for purposes of determining what rights you, as a user of the CC0’d work, may have. It is just one of many facts (if properly selected by the affirmer) that you should take into account before using a work dedicated to the public domain using CC0. Whether or not the affirmer indicated the jurisdiction from which the work was published, you may wish to contact the affirmer to learn more about the work as well as consult your own legal advisor about your rights.

What rights do I need to use a CC0’d work?

That depends. If you want to use the affirmer’s trademark, you need to get permission first since CC0 doesn’t affect trademark rights. You may also need to get permission from other people who have rights in the work, such as privacy or publicity rights of persons whose likeness or image appear in a photograph or in another work.

How can I be sure that I have all the rights I need to use the work?

CC0 contains a disclaimer of warranties just like our licenses, so there is no assurance whatsoever that the affirmer (the person who applied CC0 to the work) has all the necessary rights to grant permission to use the CC0’d work. The person applying CC0 to their work is not guaranteeing anything about it, including whether she owns the copyright or has cleared any uses of third-party content that her work may be based on or incorporate. If you are in doubt, then we strongly recommend you not use the work until you have taken all the steps and precautions you feel you need to before doing so, which may include contacting the person who applied CC0 to the work and consulting legal counsel.


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#####EOF##### Creative Commons Global Summit 2019

Global Summit 2019

The next Global Summit will be held in Lisbon, Portugal May 9-11 2019.

Registration is now open!

Join us for three days of dynamic programming at Museu do Oriente, with a special keynote evening event held at the historic Cineteatro Capitolio.

We’ve grown the CC Global Summit every year as hundreds of leading activists, advocates, librarians, educators, lawyers, technologists, and more have joined us for discussion and debate, workshops and planning, talks and community building. It’s a can’t-miss event for anyone interested in the global movement for the commons.

All attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at our conference are expected to adhere to our Code of Conduct to help ensure a safe environment for everyone.

 

Please join our mailing list for the latest updates on the 2019 Global Summit.

 

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Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • for any purpose, even commercially.
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

  • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
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#####EOF##### Technology! Can you code? - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > Technology! Can you code?

Technology! Can you code?

October 7, 2003

No, not another contest — see Can you remix? (results soon) and GET CREATIVE! (you still have time) — but artists can’t have all the fun.

If you can code, we want you to check out our
technology challenges section. GUI developer to Semantic Web pioneer, we have a task for you — help build Creative Commons’ vision of some rights reserved into today’s software and the infrastructure of the Net.

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Creative Commons Legal Code

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Official translations of this license are available in other languages.

Creative Commons Corporation (“Creative Commons”) is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Distribution of Creative Commons public licenses does not create a lawyer-client or other relationship. Creative Commons makes its licenses and related information available on an “as-is” basis. Creative Commons gives no warranties regarding its licenses, any material licensed under their terms and conditions, or any related information. Creative Commons disclaims all liability for damages resulting from their use to the fullest extent possible.

Using Creative Commons Public Licenses

Creative Commons public licenses provide a standard set of terms and conditions that creators and other rights holders may use to share original works of authorship and other material subject to copyright and certain other rights specified in the public license below. The following considerations are for informational purposes only, are not exhaustive, and do not form part of our licenses.

Considerations for licensors: Our public licenses are intended for use by those authorized to give the public permission to use material in ways otherwise restricted by copyright and certain other rights. Our licenses are irrevocable. Licensors should read and understand the terms and conditions of the license they choose before applying it. Licensors should also secure all rights necessary before applying our licenses so that the public can reuse the material as expected. Licensors should clearly mark any material not subject to the license. This includes other CC-licensed material, or material used under an exception or limitation to copyright. More considerations for licensors.

Considerations for the public: By using one of our public licenses, a licensor grants the public permission to use the licensed material under specified terms and conditions. If the licensor’s permission is not necessary for any reason–for example, because of any applicable exception or limitation to copyright–then that use is not regulated by the license. Our licenses grant only permissions under copyright and certain other rights that a licensor has authority to grant. Use of the licensed material may still be restricted for other reasons, including because others have copyright or other rights in the material. A licensor may make special requests, such as asking that all changes be marked or described. Although not required by our licenses, you are encouraged to respect those requests where reasonable. More considerations for the public.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License

By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined below), You accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License ("Public License"). To the extent this Public License may be interpreted as a contract, You are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of Your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants You such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.

Section 1 – Definitions.

  1. Adapted Material means material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights that is derived from or based upon the Licensed Material and in which the Licensed Material is translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the Copyright and Similar Rights held by the Licensor. For purposes of this Public License, where the Licensed Material is a musical work, performance, or sound recording, Adapted Material is always produced where the Licensed Material is synched in timed relation with a moving image.
  2. Adapter's License means the license You apply to Your Copyright and Similar Rights in Your contributions to Adapted Material in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Public License.
  3. BY-NC-SA Compatible License means a license listed at creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses, approved by Creative Commons as essentially the equivalent of this Public License.
  4. Copyright and Similar Rights means copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright including, without limitation, performance, broadcast, sound recording, and Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized. For purposes of this Public License, the rights specified in Section 2(b)(1)-(2) are not Copyright and Similar Rights.
  5. Effective Technological Measures means those measures that, in the absence of proper authority, may not be circumvented under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, and/or similar international agreements.
  6. Exceptions and Limitations means fair use, fair dealing, and/or any other exception or limitation to Copyright and Similar Rights that applies to Your use of the Licensed Material.
  7. License Elements means the license attributes listed in the name of a Creative Commons Public License. The License Elements of this Public License are Attribution, NonCommercial, and ShareAlike.
  8. Licensed Material means the artistic or literary work, database, or other material to which the Licensor applied this Public License.
  9. Licensed Rights means the rights granted to You subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, which are limited to all Copyright and Similar Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material and that the Licensor has authority to license.
  10. Licensor means the individual(s) or entity(ies) granting rights under this Public License.
  11. NonCommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. For purposes of this Public License, the exchange of the Licensed Material for other material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights by digital file-sharing or similar means is NonCommercial provided there is no payment of monetary compensation in connection with the exchange.
  12. Share means to provide material to the public by any means or process that requires permission under the Licensed Rights, such as reproduction, public display, public performance, distribution, dissemination, communication, or importation, and to make material available to the public including in ways that members of the public may access the material from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
  13. Sui Generis Database Rights means rights other than copyright resulting from Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, as amended and/or succeeded, as well as other essentially equivalent rights anywhere in the world.
  14. You means the individual or entity exercising the Licensed Rights under this Public License. Your has a corresponding meaning.

Section 2 – Scope.

  1. License grant.
    1. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to:
      1. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part, for NonCommercial purposes only; and
      2. produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material for NonCommercial purposes only.
    2. Exceptions and Limitations. For the avoidance of doubt, where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions.
    3. Term. The term of this Public License is specified in Section 6(a).
    4. Media and formats; technical modifications allowed. The Licensor authorizes You to exercise the Licensed Rights in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter created, and to make technical modifications necessary to do so. The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures. For purposes of this Public License, simply making modifications authorized by this Section 2(a)(4) never produces Adapted Material.
    5. Downstream recipients.
      1. Offer from the Licensor – Licensed Material. Every recipient of the Licensed Material automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License.
      2. Additional offer from the Licensor – Adapted Material. Every recipient of Adapted Material from You automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Adapted Material under the conditions of the Adapter’s License You apply.
      3. No downstream restrictions. You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any recipient of the Licensed Material.
    6. No endorsement. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is, connected with, or sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor or others designated to receive attribution as provided in Section 3(a)(1)(A)(i).

  2. Other rights.

    1. Moral rights, such as the right of integrity, are not licensed under this Public License, nor are publicity, privacy, and/or other similar personality rights; however, to the extent possible, the Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any such rights held by the Licensor to the limited extent necessary to allow You to exercise the Licensed Rights, but not otherwise.
    2. Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License.
    3. To the extent possible, the Licensor waives any right to collect royalties from You for the exercise of the Licensed Rights, whether directly or through a collecting society under any voluntary or waivable statutory or compulsory licensing scheme. In all other cases the Licensor expressly reserves any right to collect such royalties, including when the Licensed Material is used other than for NonCommercial purposes.

Section 3 – License Conditions.

Your exercise of the Licensed Rights is expressly made subject to the following conditions.

  1. Attribution.

    1. If You Share the Licensed Material (including in modified form), You must:

      1. retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material:
        1. identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated);
        2. a copyright notice;
        3. a notice that refers to this Public License;
        4. a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties;
        5. a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable;
      2. indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and
      3. indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License.
    2. You may satisfy the conditions in Section 3(a)(1) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy the conditions by providing a URI or hyperlink to a resource that includes the required information.
    3. If requested by the Licensor, You must remove any of the information required by Section 3(a)(1)(A) to the extent reasonably practicable.
  2. ShareAlike.

    In addition to the conditions in Section 3(a), if You Share Adapted Material You produce, the following conditions also apply.

    1. The Adapter’s License You apply must be a Creative Commons license with the same License Elements, this version or later, or a BY-NC-SA Compatible License.
    2. You must include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, the Adapter's License You apply. You may satisfy this condition in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share Adapted Material.
    3. You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, Adapted Material that restrict exercise of the rights granted under the Adapter's License You apply.

Section 4 – Sui Generis Database Rights.

Where the Licensed Rights include Sui Generis Database Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material:

  1. for the avoidance of doubt, Section 2(a)(1) grants You the right to extract, reuse, reproduce, and Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database for NonCommercial purposes only;
  2. if You include all or a substantial portion of the database contents in a database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights, then the database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights (but not its individual contents) is Adapted Material, including for purposes of Section 3(b); and
  3. You must comply with the conditions in Section 3(a) if You Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database.
For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 4 supplements and does not replace Your obligations under this Public License where the Licensed Rights include other Copyright and Similar Rights.

Section 5 – Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability.

  1. Unless otherwise separately undertaken by the Licensor, to the extent possible, the Licensor offers the Licensed Material as-is and as-available, and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the Licensed Material, whether express, implied, statutory, or other. This includes, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not known or discoverable. Where disclaimers of warranties are not allowed in full or in part, this disclaimer may not apply to You.
  2. To the extent possible, in no event will the Licensor be liable to You on any legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence) or otherwise for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other losses, costs, expenses, or damages arising out of this Public License or use of the Licensed Material, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such losses, costs, expenses, or damages. Where a limitation of liability is not allowed in full or in part, this limitation may not apply to You.
  1. The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided above shall be interpreted in a manner that, to the extent possible, most closely approximates an absolute disclaimer and waiver of all liability.

Section 6 – Term and Termination.

  1. This Public License applies for the term of the Copyright and Similar Rights licensed here. However, if You fail to comply with this Public License, then Your rights under this Public License terminate automatically.

  2. Where Your right to use the Licensed Material has terminated under Section 6(a), it reinstates:

    1. automatically as of the date the violation is cured, provided it is cured within 30 days of Your discovery of the violation; or
    2. upon express reinstatement by the Licensor.
    For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 6(b) does not affect any right the Licensor may have to seek remedies for Your violations of this Public License.
  3. For the avoidance of doubt, the Licensor may also offer the Licensed Material under separate terms or conditions or stop distributing the Licensed Material at any time; however, doing so will not terminate this Public License.
  4. Sections 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 survive termination of this Public License.

Section 7 – Other Terms and Conditions.

  1. The Licensor shall not be bound by any additional or different terms or conditions communicated by You unless expressly agreed.
  2. Any arrangements, understandings, or agreements regarding the Licensed Material not stated herein are separate from and independent of the terms and conditions of this Public License.

Section 8 – Interpretation.

  1. For the avoidance of doubt, this Public License does not, and shall not be interpreted to, reduce, limit, restrict, or impose conditions on any use of the Licensed Material that could lawfully be made without permission under this Public License.
  2. To the extent possible, if any provision of this Public License is deemed unenforceable, it shall be automatically reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. If the provision cannot be reformed, it shall be severed from this Public License without affecting the enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions.
  3. No term or condition of this Public License will be waived and no failure to comply consented to unless expressly agreed to by the Licensor.
  4. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be interpreted as a limitation upon, or waiver of, any privileges and immunities that apply to the Licensor or You, including from the legal processes of any jurisdiction or authority.

Creative Commons is not a party to its public licenses. Notwithstanding, Creative Commons may elect to apply one of its public licenses to material it publishes and in those instances will be considered the “Licensor.” The text of the Creative Commons public licenses is dedicated to the public domain under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. Except for the limited purpose of indicating that material is shared under a Creative Commons public license or as otherwise permitted by the Creative Commons policies published at creativecommons.org/policies, Creative Commons does not authorize the use of the trademark “Creative Commons” or any other trademark or logo of Creative Commons without its prior written consent including, without limitation, in connection with any unauthorized modifications to any of its public licenses or any other arrangements, understandings, or agreements concerning use of licensed material. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph does not form part of the public licenses.

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#####EOF##### Marking/Creators/Marking third party content - Creative Commons

Marking/Creators/Marking third party content

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Marking best practices also apply for any third party content your work incorporates. Third party content refers to material created by others, or more precisely, in which the licensor is not the copyright holder. Third party content could be offered under a Creative Commons license, restricted by All Rights Reserved copyright, or anything in between. You should obtain any permissions required for your use of third party content and abide by any license restrictions.

Using third party content in your work that is not offered under the same license terms as the rest of your work may require additional marking. If you include works offered under other Creative Commons licenses, additional marking may be required for attribution. If you include third party content in your work that may not be available for reuse under the same terms as the rest of the work, you should warn users and mark it with any additional information that may be helpful. CC offers additional explanation and tips on giving thorough notices and marking for works.

Marking works offered under other CC licenses

Here's how you may want to consider marking third party content that is offered under different CC licenses.

Example of marking your own work:

Except otherwise noted, this blog is © 2009 Greg Grossmeier, under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.

Example of marking the differently licensed item:

The photo X is © 2009 Jane Park, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

In general, when using works offered under Creative Commons licenses you should consider adhering to best practices for marking that content.

Notices and marking

CC licenses are designed to let others know how they may use a work without infringing copyright. Sometimes, it may be helpful for a licensor to offer users guidance beyond the terms of the license. CC licensors can use notices and marking to inform users of any limitations on the application of the CC license to their work. Typically, creators give either a notice visually next to the relevant content, or at the beginning or end of a work, as appropriate for the medium, or both. There is no singular, correct way to give a notice, and different situations may require more or less complicated notices and marking. CC offers additional explanation and tips on giving thorough notices and marking for works.

Additional explanation and tips

CC licenses are designed to let others know how they may use a work without infringing copyright. Sometimes, it may be helpful for a licensor to offer users guidance beyond the terms of the license. CC licensors can use notices and marking to inform users of any limitations on the application of the CC license to their work. Users should carefully observe any notices or marking by the licensor.

When a creator or rightsholder applies a Creative Commons license to a work, the license automatically applies to any copyrights the licensor has in the entire work. Ideally, licensors will have all the rights necessary to license a work, since they otherwise potentially expose users to liability. Alternatively, licensors that do not have all the necessary rights can inform users with notice statements and/or marking that explains the limitations on the license, warning, for instance, that a particular element of a work is not freely available or that additional rights clearance may be necessary. Some licensors may also wish to exempt certain portions of a work from the application of the CC license. For instance, a creator may wish to apply a CC license to one chapter of a book. Creative Commons licenses are flexible in their application, and licensors may use them as they find appropriate. To avoid confusion or misunderstanding on the part of users, however, it is important to mark a work clearly to identify portions not subject to the CC license.

Two common marking practices

CC has found that licensors often use two mechanisms to mark works like those described above. Some licensors include a general notice within their copyright and licensing notice that identifies those portions of the work that are not subject to the CC license. This may take the form of a general notice letting licensees know that some of the content is not licensed under the CC license applied, may be subject to another license arrangement and/or may not be available for reuse. Ideally, these types of notices specifically identify that content. This style of notice is popular in mediums like video, where a notice at the beginning or the end is convenient and the standard. Other licensors choose to mark the specific content with a notice to that same effect at each instant it occurs, instead of providing a general notice attached to the work. Ideally, licensors will do both for maximum clarity.

As a best practice, licensors should give clear and effective notices. Notice may be in any form the licensor chooses and should clearly explain what rights and substantive portions of a work are and are not licensed. Some licensors include the following general notice along with the license icon: "Except where otherwise noted, this work is available under [license version]." Licensors can then use marking, for instance a watermark, colored background or any other method desired to indicate elements to which the license does not apply. For instance, some licensors individually mark pieces of content to which the license does not apply with explanatory text such as “(c) copyright holder--used with permission” or “The CC license does not apply to this picture.” Licensors in that situation, however, should also ideally explain their marking scheme in the general notice.

Tips for a clear and informative notice

There is no one, right way to give notice, and different situations may require more or less complicated notices and marking. The following tips may be helpful, however, in designing a clear and informative notice.

1. Define the work

Substantively define the work to which you are applying the license. A notice that "this work" is offered under a CC license tells a user much less than one that gives the work's title or defines the work. If you intend to license a song, name the song. If you intend to license part of a work, describe that part. For instance, an author of a novel could offer one chapter under a CC license and use the following notice: "Chapter X of Novel Y by Author Z is offered under [license version].” Licensors who define the licensed work make it easier for users to understand which works and parts of works are licensed and available for use.

2. Identify any parts of the work to which the license does not apply

Here the licensor should describe all of the elements of the work (as defined in the first step) to which the license does not apply, and thus are not available for use under the license terms. You may list reserved elements in the general notice, or you can describe and implement a marking procedure such as watermarking or text notices that you will use to denote those elements of the work that are not licensed. Licensors should inform users about any portions of the work to which the license cannot apply because the licensor does not have the necessary rights, and any places where the licensor has opted not to apply the license as a strategic matter.

3. Identify the rights licensed that you have in the work (as far as you know) and any rights that are not licensed because you do not have them.

When licensors are the owners of, or are authorized to exercise, all rights related to their creative works, including copyright and publicity/privacy rights, marking a work is not problematic. However, some licensors do not own all rights related to their works.
Copyright is a bundle of rights, such as the right to copy and the right to distribute, which are divisible and may be held by different parties. A licensor without all the rights should list those they have. For instance, a licensor who holds the performance rights to a recording of a song, but not the rights in the composition, should say so. Licensors should attempt to alert users of any rights held by others that may impact their ability to reuse the work.

4. Grant any additional permissions

Licensors can use notices to grant additional permissions beyond the license grant. For instance, a licensor who chooses a NoDerivatives or NonCommercial license can grant users permission to create derivatives or make commercial uses under specific conditions. Note that licensors can use notices to broaden the license grant and give additional permissions, but notices cannot restrict any permissions already granted by the CC license.

5. Convey any supplementary requests or information

Licensors should use notices to inform users about any additional requests or information. If you desire a particular attribution statement, for instance, you can request it here. You may also decide to include your contact information and anything else you would like to pass on to users.
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Welcome to the CC Global Network Community Site

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons Legal Code

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Creative Commons Legal Code

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0

CREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION IS NOT A LAW FIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES. DISTRIBUTION OF THIS LICENSE DOES NOT CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. CREATIVE COMMONS PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS. CREATIVE COMMONS MAKES NO WARRANTIES REGARDING THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, AND DISCLAIMS LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ITS USE.

License

THE WORK (AS DEFINED BELOW) IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL" OR "LICENSE"). THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW. ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

BY EXERCISING ANY RIGHTS TO THE WORK PROVIDED HERE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. THE LICENSOR GRANTS YOU THE RIGHTS CONTAINED HERE IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

1. Definitions

  1. "Collective Work" means a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology or encyclopedia, in which the Work in its entirety in unmodified form, along with a number of other contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole. A work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work (as defined below) for the purposes of this License.
  2. "Derivative Work" means a work based upon the Work or upon the Work and other pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted, except that a work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this License. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a musical composition or sound recording, the synchronization of the Work in timed-relation with a moving image ("synching") will be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this License.
  3. "Licensor" means the individual or entity that offers the Work under the terms of this License.
  4. "Original Author" means the individual or entity who created the Work.
  5. "Work" means the copyrightable work of authorship offered under the terms of this License.
  6. "You" means an individual or entity exercising rights under this License who has not previously violated the terms of this License with respect to the Work, or who has received express permission from the Licensor to exercise rights under this License despite a previous violation.
  7. "License Elements" means the following high-level license attributes as selected by Licensor and indicated in the title of this License: Attribution, Noncommercial, ShareAlike.

2. Fair Use Rights. Nothing in this license is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws.

3. License Grant. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright) license to exercise the rights in the Work as stated below:

  1. to reproduce the Work, to incorporate the Work into one or more Collective Works, and to reproduce the Work as incorporated in the Collective Works;
  2. to create and reproduce Derivative Works;
  3. to distribute copies or phonorecords of, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission the Work including as incorporated in Collective Works;
  4. to distribute copies or phonorecords of, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission Derivative Works;

The above rights may be exercised in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter devised. The above rights include the right to make such modifications as are technically necessary to exercise the rights in other media and formats. All rights not expressly granted by Licensor are hereby reserved, including but not limited to the rights set forth in Sections 4(e) and 4(f).

4. Restrictions.The license granted in Section 3 above is expressly made subject to and limited by the following restrictions:

  1. You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work only under the terms of this License, and You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier for, this License with every copy or phonorecord of the Work You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Work that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients' exercise of the rights granted hereunder. You may not sublicense the Work. You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Work as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License. If You create a Collective Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Collective Work any reference to such Licensor or the Original Author, as requested. If You create a Derivative Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Derivative Work any reference to such Licensor or the Original Author, as requested.
  2. You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform a Derivative Work only under the terms of this License, a later version of this License with the same License Elements as this License, or a Creative Commons iCommons license that contains the same License Elements as this License (e.g. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Japan). You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier for, this License or other license specified in the previous sentence with every copy or phonorecord of each Derivative Work You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Derivative Works that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients' exercise of the rights granted hereunder, and You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Derivative Work with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Derivative Work as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Derivative Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License.
  3. You may not exercise any of the rights granted to You in Section 3 above in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation. The exchange of the Work for other copyrighted works by means of digital file-sharing or otherwise shall not be considered to be intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation, provided there is no payment of any monetary compensation in connection with the exchange of copyrighted works.
  4. If you distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work or any Derivative Works or Collective Works, You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and give the Original Author credit reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing by conveying the name (or pseudonym if applicable) of the Original Author if supplied; the title of the Work if supplied; to the extent reasonably practicable, the Uniform Resource Identifier, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URI does not refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work; and in the case of a Derivative Work, a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Derivative Work (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author," or "Screenplay based on original Work by Original Author"). Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Derivative Work or Collective Work, at a minimum such credit will appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as such other comparable authorship credit.

  5. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a musical composition:

    1. Performance Royalties Under Blanket Licenses. Licensor reserves the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a performance rights society (e.g. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), royalties for the public performance or public digital performance (e.g. webcast) of the Work if that performance is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.
    2. Mechanical Rights and Statutory Royalties. Licensor reserves the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a music rights agency or designated agent (e.g. Harry Fox Agency), royalties for any phonorecord You create from the Work ("cover version") and distribute, subject to the compulsory license created by 17 USC Section 115 of the US Copyright Act (or the equivalent in other jurisdictions), if Your distribution of such cover version is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.
  6. Webcasting Rights and Statutory Royalties. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a sound recording, Licensor reserves the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a performance-rights society (e.g. SoundExchange), royalties for the public digital performance (e.g. webcast) of the Work, subject to the compulsory license created by 17 USC Section 114 of the US Copyright Act (or the equivalent in other jurisdictions), if Your public digital performance is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.

5. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer

UNLESS OTHERWISE MUTUALLY AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES IN WRITING, LICENSOR OFFERS THE WORK AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE WORK, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE ABSENCE OF LATENT OR OTHER DEFECTS, ACCURACY, OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS, WHETHER OR NOT DISCOVERABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SUCH EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

6. Limitation on Liability. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS LICENSE OR THE USE OF THE WORK, EVEN IF LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

7. Termination

  1. This License and the rights granted hereunder will terminate automatically upon any breach by You of the terms of this License. Individuals or entities who have received Derivative Works or Collective Works from You under this License, however, will not have their licenses terminated provided such individuals or entities remain in full compliance with those licenses. Sections 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will survive any termination of this License.
  2. Subject to the above terms and conditions, the license granted here is perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright in the Work). Notwithstanding the above, Licensor reserves the right to release the Work under different license terms or to stop distributing the Work at any time; provided, however that any such election will not serve to withdraw this License (or any other license that has been, or is required to be, granted under the terms of this License), and this License will continue in full force and effect unless terminated as stated above.

8. Miscellaneous

  1. Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform the Work or a Collective Work, the Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License.
  2. Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform a Derivative Work, Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the original Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License.
  3. If any provision of this License is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of the terms of this License, and without further action by the parties to this agreement, such provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make such provision valid and enforceable.
  4. No term or provision of this License shall be deemed waived and no breach consented to unless such waiver or consent shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged with such waiver or consent.
  5. This License constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the Work licensed here. There are no understandings, agreements or representations with respect to the Work not specified here. Licensor shall not be bound by any additional provisions that may appear in any communication from You. This License may not be modified without the mutual written agreement of the Licensor and You.

Creative Commons is not a party to this License, and makes no warranty whatsoever in connection with the Work. Creative Commons will not be liable to You or any party on any legal theory for any damages whatsoever, including without limitation any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising in connection to this license. Notwithstanding the foregoing two (2) sentences, if Creative Commons has expressly identified itself as the Licensor hereunder, it shall have all rights and obligations of Licensor.

Except for the limited purpose of indicating to the public that the Work is licensed under the CCPL, neither party will use the trademark "Creative Commons" or any related trademark or logo of Creative Commons without the prior written consent of Creative Commons. Any permitted use will be in compliance with Creative Commons' then-current trademark usage guidelines, as may be published on its website or otherwise made available upon request from time to time.

Creative Commons may be contacted at https://creativecommons.org/.

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#####EOF##### License Versions - Creative Commons

License Versions

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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=License_Versions&oldid=115094"

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#####EOF##### Blog - Page 2 of 480 - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog

News

EU copyright directive moves into critical final stage

In September 2018 the European Parliament voted to approve drastic changes to copyright law that would negatively affect creativity, freedom of expression, research, and sharing across the EU. Over the last few months the Parliament, Commission, and Council (representing the Member State governments) were engaged in secret talks to come up with a reconciled version … Read More “EU copyright directive moves into critical final stage”

Policy / advocacy / copyright reform
tk-labels

Is it possible to decolonize the Commons? An interview with Jane Anderson of Local Contexts

Joining us at the Creative Commons Global Summit in 2018, NYU professor and legal scholar Jane Anderson presented the collaborative project “Local Contexts,” “an initiative to support Native, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit, Metis and Indigenous communities in the management of their intellectual property and cultural heritage specifically within the digital environment.”

Share your work
majd

Openness, Mapping, Democracy, and Reclaiming Narrative: Majd Al-shihabi in conversation

Majd Al-shihabi, the inaugural Bassel Khartabil Free Culture Fellow, is a Palestinian-Syrian systems design engineer focusing on the role of technology in urban systems and policy design. He is passionate about development, access to knowledge, user centered design, and the internet, and experiments with implementing tools and infrastructures that catalyze social change. He studied engineering at … Read More “Openness, Mapping, Democracy, and Reclaiming Narrative: Majd Al-shihabi in conversation”

Arts / culture
#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
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Creative Commons Konzessionsurkunde

Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Dies ist eine allgemeinverständliche Zusammenfassung der Lizenz (die diese nicht ersetzt). Haftungsbeschränkung.

Sie dürfen:

  • Bearbeiten — das Material remixen, verändern und darauf aufbauen
  • und zwar für beliebige Zwecke, sogar kommerziell.
  • Der Lizenzgeber kann diese Freiheiten nicht widerrufen solange Sie sich an die Lizenzbedingungen halten.

Unter folgenden Bedingungen:

  • Namensnennung — Sie müssen angemessene Urheber- und Rechteangaben machen, einen Link zur Lizenz beifügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden. Diese Angaben dürfen in jeder angemessenen Art und Weise gemacht werden, allerdings nicht so, dass der Eindruck entsteht, der Lizenzgeber unterstütze gerade Sie oder Ihre Nutzung besonders.

  • Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen — Wenn Sie das Material remixen, verändern oder anderweitig direkt darauf aufbauen, dürfen Sie Ihre Beiträge nur unter derselben Lizenz wie das Original verbreiten.

  • Keine weiteren Einschränkungen — Sie dürfen keine zusätzlichen Klauseln oder technische Verfahren einsetzen, die anderen rechtlich irgendetwas untersagen, was die Lizenz erlaubt.

Hinweise:

  • Sie müssen sich nicht an diese Lizenz halten hinsichtlich solcher Teile des Materials, die gemeinfrei sind, oder soweit Ihre Nutzungshandlungen durch Ausnahmen und Schranken des Urheberrechts gedeckt sind.
  • Es werden keine Garantien gegeben und auch keine Gewähr geleistet. Die Lizenz verschafft Ihnen möglicherweise nicht alle Erlaubnisse, die Sie für die jeweilige Nutzung brauchen. Es können beispielsweise andere Rechte wie Persönlichkeits- und Datenschutzrechte zu beachten sein, die Ihre Nutzung des Materials entsprechend beschränken.
#####EOF##### Program areas - Creative Commons
#####EOF##### Modifying the CC licenses - Creative Commons

Modifying the CC licenses

From Creative Commons
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CC recognizes that we cannot control or prohibit separate agreements or understandings that involve or affect our standard licenses. After all, CC is not a party to the licenses – they are agreements between licensors and licensees. However, we have long insisted that CC trademarks and branding not be used in connection with separate agreements, understandings, and interpretations that may cause confusion for the public, or create any ambiguity in or inconsistency with the standard terms and conditions offered by a Creative Commons license.

CC’s policy prohibiting use of our trademarks and branding in connection with such arrangements has been a long-standing part of our Trademark Policy. This page provides additional details on the scope of the policy, as well as guidelines for proper and improper use of our trademarks and branding in connection with any such separate agreements, understandings, or modifications. Note that this policy and guidelines also apply to CC’s other legal tools, such as the CC0 Public Domain Dedication.

License Modification Policy

1. If you make a change to the text of any CC license, you may no longer refer to it as a Creative Commons or CC license, and you must not use any CC trademarks (including the Creative Commons name) or branding in connection with the license. (For the avoidance of doubt, this includes translations of CC licenses that have not been made and approved by CC in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy.)

2. If you place any restriction on use of a CC-licensed work that has the effect of limiting or further conditioning the permissions granted to the public under the standard CC license, you must not use any CC trademarks (including the Creative Commons name) or branding in connection with the license or in any way that suggests the work is available under a CC license. These restrictions often appear in terms of use on websites where CC-licensed content is hosted, or as part of terms for downloading CC-licensed content.

  • Example of impermissible extra restriction: You may not use our trademarks or branding if your terms of use provide an interpretation of a license term that contradicts the plain meaning of the standard CC terms, such as stating an interpretation of NonCommercial that hinges on the type of reuser (the definition of NonCommercial does not differentiate on this basis) as opposed to the purpose for which the work is used.
It is permissible, however, to have trademark guidelines that govern how your logo or other trademark may be used in connection with the CC-licensed work. It is also permissible to impose website terms of use that restrict access to the website by minors pursuant to applicable law. In neither case is use of CC’s trademarks or logo problematic so long as our Trademark Policy is followed.
  • Example of impermissible extra restriction: You may not use our trademarks or branding if your terms of use prohibit sharing of the CC-licensed work in certain formats.
It is permissible, however, to distribute your own CC-licensed work in a format that is not easily shared (though CC strongly discourages this) or to put your CC-licensed content behind a paywall.
  • Example of impermissible extra restriction: You may not use our trademarks or branding if your website terms of use impose attribution requirements that are more elaborate than those found in the standard CC license.
It is permissible, however, to impose terms of use that have the effect of increasing (or removing the conditions on) the permissions granted to the public under the standard terms, such as waiving the attribution condition or allowing translations of an ND-licensed work (see CC+)

NOTE: While providing "clarification" of license terms can make sense intuitively, it often runs the risk of crossing the line to become a modification of how the licenses work. CC generally discourages this practice, other than creation of educational materials about how the licenses work. If you decide to try to clarify a license term on your website or elsewhere, please respect the guidelines above.

Changelog

  • 17 April 2015: added clarification that policy covers license translations that are not made according to official policy

Rationale for the CC policy: ‘‘the beauty of standardization’’

The above guidelines are designed to preserve the underlying principles and benefits of public licensing for licensors and licensees, by reducing conflicts and confusion that may ensue. One of the fundamental design principles of CC licensing is granting permission to the public in advance, thereby reducing transaction costs and facilitating reuse. CC licenses achieve this result through terms and conditions that are ‘’standard,’’ meaning the same terms and conditions apply for all content licensed under a particular CC license. The result is reduced friction for creators who want to allow certain reuses without negotiating and granting lots of individual permissions, and for reusers who want to make use the licensed content with minimal hassle.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Modifying_the_CC_licenses&oldid=113854"

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#####EOF##### Musician - Creative Commons

Musician

From Creative Commons
Jump to: navigation, search

Musicians and CC

Online Resources

  • ArtistServer - Over 11,000 MP3 downloads by more than 10,000 artists to download for free.
  • Audiofarm - Wide selection of genres to choose from. You can easily download any song
  • Audionautix - Clips available even for commercial purposes.
  • Auboutdufil - Audio website for music under Creative Commons licenses. Over 2,600,000 downloads and more 400 artists referenced.
  • Beatpick - A music player interface where you can listen and download songs. Most of the clips are instrumental.
  • Bump Foot - Focuses mostly on techno, trance beats and electronic dance music
  • ccMixter - A community music site featuring remixes where you can listen to, sample, mash-up music
  • ccTrax - A directory of free music.
  • Copyright Friendly - A long list of copyright friendly music resources. Take a look!
  • Freesound.org - collaborative database for Creative Commons Licensed sounds. Good for sound effects such as ambient noises, synthesized sounds and sounds produced by musical instruments.
  • iBeat - If you’re looking for free beats and loops; variety of genres such as rock beats, hip hop beats and even acoustic or electronic beats.
  • Incompetech - Browse their selection by genre or feel. "Feel" would include things like: Action, Relaxed, Intense or Humorous; you can select a combination of ‘Feels’ and it will check its database for selection matches
  • Jamendo - Jamendo is a music website and a community for free and legal music downloads under Creative Commons licenses. Includes an additional pro-shop, where companies can pay artists for commerical use of their music.
  • JewelBeat - Free background music and sound effects with keywords. Mostly instrumental and consist of short loops
  • Kompoz - Artists post their clips on the website where anyone can download it and use it. They can also add their own instruments or creative mix to the original clip and upload it on the website again.
  • Leerecs - Leerecs is a Rock music website and a community for free and legal music downloads under Creative Commons licenses. Includes an additional pro-shop, where independent Rock artists can sell their music.
  • MusOpen - Free music from individual instruments in an orchestra: violins, cellos, violas, etc as well as a combination of instruments. You can also download sheet music.
  • Open Music Search - search for Copyleft, Creative Commons, Open Source, and Public Domain works in music
  • Purple Planet - Audio clips that accompany a horror, dramatic or mysterious scene
  • Soundcloud - Soundcloud is an online audio distribution platform which allows collaboration, promotion and distribution of audio recordings with Creative Commons licenses as an option.
  • Vimeo - A place for videos, but also free music as long as you give credit to the original artist.

Articles


Case Studies

Learn more about how musicians use Creative Commons licenses in their work.


Featured Entries

  • Ancient Free Gardeners: Ancient Free Gardeners is an indie-rock band in Melbourne, Australia, using Creative Commons licences to distribute their music.
  • Christopher Willits: Willits is a prominent experimental musician from the San Francisco Bay area.
  • Jonathan Coulton: Jonathan Coulton is an independent/unsigned singer-songwriter who utilises Creative Commons licences to help promote his music via free downloads.
  • Monk Turner: Monk Turner is a musician of eclectic taste and an approach to releasing albums that involves CC licensing through the internet archive.
  • Pig Head Skin: Yueh-hsin Chu (a.k.a. Pig Head Skin) is an independent musician/producer in Taiwan, and leads the band Jesus Rocks! The band released an album of the same name in October 2004 under a Creative Commons License.
  • Topology: Topology is an internationally acclaimed Brisbane-based new music ensemble.
  • Yunyu: Yunyu is a successful unsigned singer/songwriter in Sydney, Australia, who uses Creative Commons licences for promotional purposes.
  • berita terbaru and software
Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Musician&oldid=116629"

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons Legal Code

Creative Commons

Creative Commons Legal Code

Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0

CREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION IS NOT A LAW FIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES. DISTRIBUTION OF THIS DRAFT LICENSE DOES NOT CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. CREATIVE COMMONS PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS. CREATIVE COMMONS MAKES NO WARRANTIES REGARDING THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, AND DISCLAIMS LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ITS USE.

License

THE WORK (AS DEFINED BELOW) IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL" OR "LICENSE"). THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW. ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE IS PROHIBITED.

BY EXERCISING ANY RIGHTS TO THE WORK PROVIDED HERE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. THE LICENSOR GRANTS YOU THE RIGHTS CONTAINED HERE IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

1. Definitions

  1. "Collective Work" means a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology or encyclopedia, in which the Work in its entirety in unmodified form, along with a number of other contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole. A work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work (as defined below) for the purposes of this License.
  2. "Derivative Work" means a work based upon the Work or upon the Work and other pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted, except that a work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this License.
  3. "Licensor" means the individual or entity that offers the Work under the terms of this License.
  4. "Original Author" means the individual or entity who created the Work.
  5. "Work" means the copyrightable work of authorship offered under the terms of this License.
  6. "You" means an individual or entity exercising rights under this License who has not previously violated the terms of this License with respect to the Work, or who has received express permission from the Licensor to exercise rights under this License despite a previous violation.

2. Fair Use Rights. Nothing in this license is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws.

3. License Grant. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright) license to exercise the rights in the Work as stated below:

  1. to reproduce the Work, to incorporate the Work into one or more Collective Works, and to reproduce the Work as incorporated in the Collective Works;
  2. to create and reproduce Derivative Works;
  3. to distribute copies or phonorecords of, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission the Work including as incorporated in Collective Works;
  4. to distribute copies or phonorecords of, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission Derivative Works;

The above rights may be exercised in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter devised. The above rights include the right to make such modifications as are technically necessary to exercise the rights in other media and formats. All rights not expressly granted by Licensor are hereby reserved.

4. Restrictions. The license granted in Section 3 above is expressly made subject to and limited by the following restrictions:

  1. You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work only under the terms of this License, and You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier for, this License with every copy or phonorecord of the Work You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Work that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients' exercise of the rights granted hereunder. You may not sublicense the Work. You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Work as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License. If You create a Collective Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Collective Work any reference to such Licensor or the Original Author, as requested. If You create a Derivative Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Derivative Work any reference to such Licensor or the Original Author, as requested.
  2. You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform a Derivative Work only under the terms of this License, and You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier for, this License with every copy or phonorecord of each Derivative Work You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Derivative Works that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients' exercise of the rights granted hereunder, and You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Derivative Work with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Derivative Work as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Derivative Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License.
  3. If you distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work or any Derivative Works or Collective Works, You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and give the Original Author credit reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing by conveying the name (or pseudonym if applicable) of the Original Author if supplied; the title of the Work if supplied; in the case of a Derivative Work, a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Derivative Work (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author," or "Screenplay based on original Work by Original Author"). Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Derivative Work or Collective Work, at a minimum such credit will appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as such other comparable authorship credit.

5. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer

  1. By offering the Work for public release under this License, Licensor represents and warrants that, to the best of Licensor's knowledge after reasonable inquiry:
    1. Licensor has secured all rights in the Work necessary to grant the license rights hereunder and to permit the lawful exercise of the rights granted hereunder without You having any obligation to pay any royalties, compulsory license fees, residuals or any other payments;
    2. The Work does not infringe the copyright, trademark, publicity rights, common law rights or any other right of any third party or constitute defamation, invasion of privacy or other tortious injury to any third party.
  2. EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS LICENSE OR OTHERWISE AGREED IN WRITING OR REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE WORK IS LICENSED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES REGARDING THE CONTENTS OR ACCURACY OF THE WORK.

6. Limitation on Liability. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, AND EXCEPT FOR DAMAGES ARISING FROM LIABILITY TO A THIRD PARTY RESULTING FROM BREACH OF THE WARRANTIES IN SECTION 5, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS LICENSE OR THE USE OF THE WORK, EVEN IF LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

7. Termination

  1. This License and the rights granted hereunder will terminate automatically upon any breach by You of the terms of this License. Individuals or entities who have received Derivative Works or Collective Works from You under this License, however, will not have their licenses terminated provided such individuals or entities remain in full compliance with those licenses. Sections 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will survive any termination of this License.
  2. Subject to the above terms and conditions, the license granted here is perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright in the Work). Notwithstanding the above, Licensor reserves the right to release the Work under different license terms or to stop distributing the Work at any time; provided, however that any such election will not serve to withdraw this License (or any other license that has been, or is required to be, granted under the terms of this License), and this License will continue in full force and effect unless terminated as stated above.

8. Miscellaneous

  1. Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform the Work or a Collective Work, the Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License.
  2. Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform a Derivative Work, Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the original Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License.
  3. If any provision of this License is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of the terms of this License, and without further action by the parties to this agreement, such provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make such provision valid and enforceable.
  4. No term or provision of this License shall be deemed waived and no breach consented to unless such waiver or consent shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged with such waiver or consent.
  5. This License constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the Work licensed here. There are no understandings, agreements or representations with respect to the Work not specified here. Licensor shall not be bound by any additional provisions that may appear in any communication from You. This License may not be modified without the mutual written agreement of the Licensor and You.

Creative Commons is not a party to this License, and makes no warranty whatsoever in connection with the Work. Creative Commons will not be liable to You or any party on any legal theory for any damages whatsoever, including without limitation any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising in connection to this license. Notwithstanding the foregoing two (2) sentences, if Creative Commons has expressly identified itself as the Licensor hereunder, it shall have all rights and obligations of Licensor.

Except for the limited purpose of indicating to the public that the Work is licensed under the CCPL, neither party will use the trademark "Creative Commons" or any related trademark or logo of Creative Commons without the prior written consent of Creative Commons. Any permitted use will be in compliance with Creative Commons' then-current trademark usage guidelines, as may be published on its website or otherwise made available upon request from time to time.

Creative Commons may be contacted at https://creativecommons.org/.

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Creative Commons Legal Code

Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

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Creative Commons Corporation (“Creative Commons”) is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Distribution of Creative Commons public licenses does not create a lawyer-client or other relationship. Creative Commons makes its licenses and related information available on an “as-is” basis. Creative Commons gives no warranties regarding its licenses, any material licensed under their terms and conditions, or any related information. Creative Commons disclaims all liability for damages resulting from their use to the fullest extent possible.

Using Creative Commons Public Licenses

Creative Commons public licenses provide a standard set of terms and conditions that creators and other rights holders may use to share original works of authorship and other material subject to copyright and certain other rights specified in the public license below. The following considerations are for informational purposes only, are not exhaustive, and do not form part of our licenses.

Considerations for licensors: Our public licenses are intended for use by those authorized to give the public permission to use material in ways otherwise restricted by copyright and certain other rights. Our licenses are irrevocable. Licensors should read and understand the terms and conditions of the license they choose before applying it. Licensors should also secure all rights necessary before applying our licenses so that the public can reuse the material as expected. Licensors should clearly mark any material not subject to the license. This includes other CC-licensed material, or material used under an exception or limitation to copyright. More considerations for licensors.

Considerations for the public: By using one of our public licenses, a licensor grants the public permission to use the licensed material under specified terms and conditions. If the licensor’s permission is not necessary for any reason–for example, because of any applicable exception or limitation to copyright–then that use is not regulated by the license. Our licenses grant only permissions under copyright and certain other rights that a licensor has authority to grant. Use of the licensed material may still be restricted for other reasons, including because others have copyright or other rights in the material. A licensor may make special requests, such as asking that all changes be marked or described. Although not required by our licenses, you are encouraged to respect those requests where reasonable. More considerations for the public.

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License

By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined below), You accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License ("Public License"). To the extent this Public License may be interpreted as a contract, You are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of Your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants You such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.

Section 1 – Definitions.

  1. Adapted Material means material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights that is derived from or based upon the Licensed Material and in which the Licensed Material is translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the Copyright and Similar Rights held by the Licensor. For purposes of this Public License, where the Licensed Material is a musical work, performance, or sound recording, Adapted Material is always produced where the Licensed Material is synched in timed relation with a moving image.
  2. Adapter's License means the license You apply to Your Copyright and Similar Rights in Your contributions to Adapted Material in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Public License.
  3. BY-SA Compatible License means a license listed at creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses, approved by Creative Commons as essentially the equivalent of this Public License.
  4. Copyright and Similar Rights means copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright including, without limitation, performance, broadcast, sound recording, and Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized. For purposes of this Public License, the rights specified in Section 2(b)(1)-(2) are not Copyright and Similar Rights.
  5. Effective Technological Measures means those measures that, in the absence of proper authority, may not be circumvented under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, and/or similar international agreements.
  6. Exceptions and Limitations means fair use, fair dealing, and/or any other exception or limitation to Copyright and Similar Rights that applies to Your use of the Licensed Material.
  7. License Elements means the license attributes listed in the name of a Creative Commons Public License. The License Elements of this Public License are Attribution and ShareAlike.
  8. Licensed Material means the artistic or literary work, database, or other material to which the Licensor applied this Public License.
  9. Licensed Rights means the rights granted to You subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, which are limited to all Copyright and Similar Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material and that the Licensor has authority to license.
  10. Licensor means the individual(s) or entity(ies) granting rights under this Public License.
  11. Share means to provide material to the public by any means or process that requires permission under the Licensed Rights, such as reproduction, public display, public performance, distribution, dissemination, communication, or importation, and to make material available to the public including in ways that members of the public may access the material from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
  12. Sui Generis Database Rights means rights other than copyright resulting from Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, as amended and/or succeeded, as well as other essentially equivalent rights anywhere in the world.
  13. You means the individual or entity exercising the Licensed Rights under this Public License. Your has a corresponding meaning.

Section 2 – Scope.

  1. License grant.
    1. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to:
      1. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and
      2. produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material.
    2. Exceptions and Limitations. For the avoidance of doubt, where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions.
    3. Term. The term of this Public License is specified in Section 6(a).
    4. Media and formats; technical modifications allowed. The Licensor authorizes You to exercise the Licensed Rights in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter created, and to make technical modifications necessary to do so. The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures. For purposes of this Public License, simply making modifications authorized by this Section 2(a)(4) never produces Adapted Material.
    5. Downstream recipients.
      1. Offer from the Licensor – Licensed Material. Every recipient of the Licensed Material automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License.
      2. Additional offer from the Licensor – Adapted Material. Every recipient of Adapted Material from You automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Adapted Material under the conditions of the Adapter’s License You apply.
      3. No downstream restrictions. You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any recipient of the Licensed Material.
    6. No endorsement. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is, connected with, or sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor or others designated to receive attribution as provided in Section 3(a)(1)(A)(i).

  2. Other rights.

    1. Moral rights, such as the right of integrity, are not licensed under this Public License, nor are publicity, privacy, and/or other similar personality rights; however, to the extent possible, the Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any such rights held by the Licensor to the limited extent necessary to allow You to exercise the Licensed Rights, but not otherwise.
    2. Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License.
    3. To the extent possible, the Licensor waives any right to collect royalties from You for the exercise of the Licensed Rights, whether directly or through a collecting society under any voluntary or waivable statutory or compulsory licensing scheme. In all other cases the Licensor expressly reserves any right to collect such royalties.

Section 3 – License Conditions.

Your exercise of the Licensed Rights is expressly made subject to the following conditions.

  1. Attribution.

    1. If You Share the Licensed Material (including in modified form), You must:

      1. retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material:
        1. identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated);
        2. a copyright notice;
        3. a notice that refers to this Public License;
        4. a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties;
        5. a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable;
      2. indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and
      3. indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License.
    2. You may satisfy the conditions in Section 3(a)(1) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy the conditions by providing a URI or hyperlink to a resource that includes the required information.
    3. If requested by the Licensor, You must remove any of the information required by Section 3(a)(1)(A) to the extent reasonably practicable.
  2. ShareAlike.

    In addition to the conditions in Section 3(a), if You Share Adapted Material You produce, the following conditions also apply.

    1. The Adapter’s License You apply must be a Creative Commons license with the same License Elements, this version or later, or a BY-SA Compatible License.
    2. You must include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, the Adapter's License You apply. You may satisfy this condition in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share Adapted Material.
    3. You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, Adapted Material that restrict exercise of the rights granted under the Adapter's License You apply.

Section 4 – Sui Generis Database Rights.

Where the Licensed Rights include Sui Generis Database Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material:

  1. for the avoidance of doubt, Section 2(a)(1) grants You the right to extract, reuse, reproduce, and Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database;
  2. if You include all or a substantial portion of the database contents in a database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights, then the database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights (but not its individual contents) is Adapted Material, including for purposes of Section 3(b); and
  3. You must comply with the conditions in Section 3(a) if You Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database.
For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 4 supplements and does not replace Your obligations under this Public License where the Licensed Rights include other Copyright and Similar Rights.

Section 5 – Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability.

  1. Unless otherwise separately undertaken by the Licensor, to the extent possible, the Licensor offers the Licensed Material as-is and as-available, and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the Licensed Material, whether express, implied, statutory, or other. This includes, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not known or discoverable. Where disclaimers of warranties are not allowed in full or in part, this disclaimer may not apply to You.
  2. To the extent possible, in no event will the Licensor be liable to You on any legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence) or otherwise for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other losses, costs, expenses, or damages arising out of this Public License or use of the Licensed Material, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such losses, costs, expenses, or damages. Where a limitation of liability is not allowed in full or in part, this limitation may not apply to You.
  1. The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided above shall be interpreted in a manner that, to the extent possible, most closely approximates an absolute disclaimer and waiver of all liability.

Section 6 – Term and Termination.

  1. This Public License applies for the term of the Copyright and Similar Rights licensed here. However, if You fail to comply with this Public License, then Your rights under this Public License terminate automatically.

  2. Where Your right to use the Licensed Material has terminated under Section 6(a), it reinstates:

    1. automatically as of the date the violation is cured, provided it is cured within 30 days of Your discovery of the violation; or
    2. upon express reinstatement by the Licensor.
    For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 6(b) does not affect any right the Licensor may have to seek remedies for Your violations of this Public License.
  3. For the avoidance of doubt, the Licensor may also offer the Licensed Material under separate terms or conditions or stop distributing the Licensed Material at any time; however, doing so will not terminate this Public License.
  4. Sections 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 survive termination of this Public License.

Section 7 – Other Terms and Conditions.

  1. The Licensor shall not be bound by any additional or different terms or conditions communicated by You unless expressly agreed.
  2. Any arrangements, understandings, or agreements regarding the Licensed Material not stated herein are separate from and independent of the terms and conditions of this Public License.

Section 8 – Interpretation.

  1. For the avoidance of doubt, this Public License does not, and shall not be interpreted to, reduce, limit, restrict, or impose conditions on any use of the Licensed Material that could lawfully be made without permission under this Public License.
  2. To the extent possible, if any provision of this Public License is deemed unenforceable, it shall be automatically reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. If the provision cannot be reformed, it shall be severed from this Public License without affecting the enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions.
  3. No term or condition of this Public License will be waived and no failure to comply consented to unless expressly agreed to by the Licensor.
  4. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be interpreted as a limitation upon, or waiver of, any privileges and immunities that apply to the Licensor or You, including from the legal processes of any jurisdiction or authority.

Creative Commons is not a party to its public licenses. Notwithstanding, Creative Commons may elect to apply one of its public licenses to material it publishes and in those instances will be considered the “Licensor.” The text of the Creative Commons public licenses is dedicated to the public domain under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. Except for the limited purpose of indicating that material is shared under a Creative Commons public license or as otherwise permitted by the Creative Commons policies published at creativecommons.org/policies, Creative Commons does not authorize the use of the trademark “Creative Commons” or any other trademark or logo of Creative Commons without its prior written consent including, without limitation, in connection with any unauthorized modifications to any of its public licenses or any other arrangements, understandings, or agreements concerning use of licensed material. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph does not form part of the public licenses.

Creative Commons may be contacted at creativecommons.org.

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CC Affiliate Network

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As of Apr 2017, Creative Commons is shifting from the current Affiliate Program to a new Global Network structure. This page contains all resources related to the Affiliates and the history of the CC Affiliates Network and will no longer be updated once the transition process is completed.

If you are interested in learning more about or interested in joining CC Global Network, please read this article. If you have any questions or requests regarding CC’s global network, please join our community channel on Slack or contact Simeon Oriko, Global Network Manager, at network@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons Affiliate Network consists of 100+ affiliates with over 500 volunteers and community members who serve as CC representatives in over 85 countries.

The teams have a wide range of responsibilities, including public outreach, community building, translating information and tools, fielding inquiries, conducting research, communicating with the public, maintaining resources for CC users, and in general, promoting sharing and our mission. These teams have a formal relationship with Creative Commons via an agreement between organizations, universities or individuals in the jurisdiction and CC HQ.

Visit Affiliates page on the CC wiki for more information, including regional activities and history of our work.

List of Affiliates by Jurisdiction


The Licensing Suite

Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses written to conform to international treaties governing copyright. The international licenses, as well as existing ported licenses, are all intended to be effective anywhere in the world, with the same effect. In the past, when it was demonstrated that a ported license was needed, Creative Commons worked with experts to craft a localized version of its six, core international licenses. Over 50 ported license suites exist. These ported licenses are based on and compatible with the international license suite, differing only in that they have been modified to reflect local nuances in how terms and conditions are expressed, drafting protocols and, of course, language. They are effective worldwide, as is the international license suite. The most recent international license suite available is 4.0. Version 4.0 will not be ported absent compelling circumstances; CC will begin considering requests to port the 4.0 suite in mid-2014.



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CC Summit registration is now open!

Great news! We’re excited to announce that registration for the 2019 Creative Commons Global Summit is now open. The Creative Commons Global Summit will take place in Lisbon, Portugal, 9-11 May 2019. Join us for three days of dynamic programming at Museu do Oriente, with a special keynote evening event held at the historic Cineteatro Capitolio. We’ve grown … Read More “CC Summit registration is now open!”

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The Commons Opens Up the World

I first got involved with Creative Commons last year when the Creative Commons Global Summit happened in Toronto. I had just moved to Toronto, so it seemed like a great opportunity to see what the organization did firsthand.

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#####EOF##### ShareAlike compatibility process and criteria - Creative Commons

ShareAlike compatibility process and criteria

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The compatibility mechanism in the CC ShareAlike licenses allows contributions to an adaptation to be licensed under a different license if “approved by Creative Commons as essentially the equivalent of this Public License” and listed on the Compatible Licenses page.[1]

As steward of the CC licenses, we think it is important to ensure that licensors can trust that when they license their works under one of our licenses, the features of our licenses that are important to them continue to be respected when their works are adapted. Creative Commons seeks to meet licensor expectations as closely as possible, but we also seek to grow the commons of remixable content by declaring compatibility with other licenses that share the same fundamental purpose and effect as our licenses. Please keep these considerations in mind as you review the process and criteria below. Learn more about how ShareAlike compatibility works here.

Creative Commons may revise this document in the future, with a 30-day public consultation before any changes are made final.

Process for Compatibility Evaluation

1. A proposal for a candidate license is made to Creative Commons via a posting to the CC license development and versioning list.

The proposal must include a link to the full text of the license posted by the steward.[2] It is not essential that the proposal be made by the license steward (see process note, below), but it is strongly preferred. CC may also begin the process by proposing a candidate license. Similar licenses containing substantially the same text may be proposed or analyzed together.

2. Creative Commons creates a wiki page for the candidate license.

The primary place of public discussion will be the CC license development and versioning list; however, relevant information about the proposal, a summary of the points of discussion, and analysis of whether compatibility criteria are met will be posted on the wiki.

3. Creative Commons publishes a preliminary comparison and analysis of the CC license and the candidate license.

This comparison maps elements and features of the CC license to elements and features of the candidate license, and analyzes relevant differences.

4. The public discussion period begins.

The public discussion period will typically remain open for 30 days. If complicated issues arise, it may be desirable for the discussion to last longer than 30 days until issues are understood fully. However, Creative Commons also reserves the right to close the public discussion early if we determine that a candidate license clearly does not meet our criteria for compatibility.

5. CC issues a compatibility determination.

Creative Commons will issue a determination detailing reasons why a candidate license is or is not compatible with the CC license. The decision will be posted to the CC license development and versioning list, and posted on the wiki page.

If compatibility is declared, Creative Commons will list the license as a compatible license on its compatible licenses page. Reusers of works under the relevant CC license may thereafter apply the compatible license to the contributions they make to adaptations of those works. If CC declines to name the license as compatible, Creative Commons will list the candidate license as reviewed but not deemed compatible on its compatible licenses page. The candidate license will not be reconsidered for compatibility unless the license steward addresses the identified concerns.

Process notes.

This is not intended as an approval process or a recommendation process.

A compatibility determination means only that you may license your contributions to adaptations of BY-SA or BY-NC-SA licensed works under that license; it is not a recommendation, and a determination that a license is incompatible does not mean that CC recommends against using that license in other circumstances.

We encourage participation of license stewards.

CC would strongly prefer that the license steward participate in the compatibility discussion, particularly if a statement of interpretation or intention is necessary to address concerns or clarify uncertain issues.
For two-way compatibility, it's often the case that the stewards of both licenses must work together to remove inconsistencies between the licenses, possibly through versioning of one or both of the licenses. CC does not anticipate versioning again in the foreseeable future, but did work with the license stewards of several compatible license candidates during the 4.0 versioning process in anticipation of this process. In cases where licenses are not actively stewarded, participation of the relevant license-user community may be sufficient. If there is no active community of licensors, the value of a compatibility determination may be small, unless there is a very large existing pool of content otherwise incompatibly licensed.

Minimum Compatibility Criteria

General.

To be compatible with BY-SA or BY-NC-SA, a candidate license must have the same purpose, meaning, and effect as the corresponding CC license.[3] For each of the criteria below, it is not necessary that the candidate license provide identical treatment. As long as the treatment of relevant factors in the candidate license closely approximates the treatment in the CC license then compatibility is achievable. This is not an exhaustive list of criteria. CC retains discretion not to declare a license compatible based on other factors.

Technical note about adaptations of CC-licensed material.

When an adaptation of a CC-licensed work is created, use of the adaptation requires compliance with the original CC license and the license applied by the adapter to contributions she makes to an adaptation. This means the licenses “stack” in the sense that users of the adaptation need to be aware of and comply with the terms of the original license and the adapter’s license.[4] For this reason, the conditions of compatible licenses must align closely with the corresponding CC license. This best respects the expectations of the original CC licensor, and comports with the expectations and practices of reusers of adapted works.

Minimum compatibility criteria.

  • An approved ShareAlike compatible license must at a minimum:
  1. contain a ShareAlike mechanism;
  2. contain an attribution mechanism;
  3. license rights under copyright;[5]
  4. for BY-SA, not violate the definition of Free Cultural Works;[6] and
  5. for BY-NC-SA 4.0, contain a noncommercial limitation.

Additional considerations

  • An approved ShareAlike compatible license does not need to be reciprocally compatible with the CC license – that is, two-way compatibility need not exist – provided there are strategic policy or practical reasons for allowing one-way compatibility with a particular license.
  • An approved ShareAlike compatible license may impose more conditions on reuse than the corresponding CC license, but only so long as the extra conditions do not unduly burden reuse or neutralize important features of the license.[7]
  • An approved ShareAlike compatible license should address Effective Technological Measures in some way, but not necessarily in the same way as the CC licenses: for example, CC may consider a candidate license that allows licensees to impose ETMs on the conditions that an unencumbered copy is distributed in parallel. It’s also possible that a candidate license addresses ETMs implicitly, such as through other terms which imply a restriction on imposing ETMs.
  • While an approved ShareAlike compatible license must contain an attribution requirement, it is not necessary that the requirement align precisely with the CC licenses. Acceptable variation will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Changelog

  • 2 June 2014: Initial published version.

Notes

  1. ↑ Note that the BY-NC-SA license did not contain a compatibility mechanism in versions prior to 4.0. The mechanism is contained in both BY-SA and BY-NC-SA as of version 4.0.
  2. ↑ CC may require additional information in connection with the proposal, such as identification of the important license features.
  3. ↑ This requirement was originally dictated by the language in BY-SA 3.0, and was carried forward in BY-SA 4.0 and BY-NC-SA 4.0.
  4. ↑ However, starting with the version 4.0 ShareAlike licenses, it is explicitly clear that downstream users of adaptations created from 4.0 licensed works may satisfy the terms of the upstream license(s) – version 4.0 – by complying with the conditions of the adapter’s license. That means, for example, that someone using the adaptation may attribute the original author in the manner prescribed by the adapter’s license (i.e. the compatible license) rather than the manner dictated by the version 4.0 license applied to the original.
  5. ↑ At a minimum, a candidate license must license copyright. The extent to which the candidate licenses fails to license or otherwise address the other rights covered by CC licenses (e.g., sui generis database rights), or licenses additional rights beyond those in the CC license (e.g., patent rights), will be an important part of the compatibility analysis. Even where a difference in license scope is not deemed a barrier to compatibility, it may be necessary to require that special care be taken so that reusers are aware of the differences.
  6. ↑ CC has committed that its BY-SA licenses will always be compliant with the Definition of Free Cultural Works. While the Open Definition wasn’t included in that earlier statement, we may also look to that standard of openness for guidance as we evaluate candidate licenses. Licensors who choose BY-SA expect that their material will only be reused in ways that ensure that downstream users know they have the ability to reuse and remix.
  7. ↑ For example, a few potential compatible licenses used predominantly for software require reusers to distribute or make source code available to facilitate modifications. CC licenses are not designed for software, and contain no equivalent provision. However, this sort of additional condition may be acceptable in a compatible license if necessary steps are taken to ensure it does not unduly complicate reuse.
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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Collecting Society Projects - Creative Commons

Collecting Society Projects

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This page collects information about the interaction between various Creative Commons jurisdiction projects and collecting societies. It provides an overview of jurisdictions where Collecting Society members can use Creative Commons licenses ('Projects') and of jurisdictions where there are talks between the jurisdiction project and a collecting society in order to achieve this goal ('Negotiations').

Priorities

  1. Increase usage of CC license in jurisdiction
  2. Increase legal certainty for musicians wishing to use CC licenses
  3. Increase profitability of CC license users
  4. Support non-exclusive collecting societies

NOTE: When interacting with Collecting Society representatives it is important to be cordial with them and provide information about Creative Commons usage (see case studies, documentation and metrics) and integrating Creative Commons licenses (see: CC+, CcREL and web integration). Be be mindful of the overall priorities and ensure that you are in line with the arrangements made as part of ongoing projects

Projects

  • Collecting Society Projects/Netherlands: pilot project between CC Netherlands and [://mmm.bumastemra.nl/en-US/Home.htm BUMA/STEMRA] (Collecting society for composers and songwriters) launched on 23 august 2007 and currently running.
  • Collecting Society Projects/Denmark: trail agreed between [://mmm.ksaday.com K][://mmm.koda.dk/english ODA] (Collecting society for composers, songwriters and music publishers) launced on 31 january 2008 and currently running.
  • Collecting Society Projects/Sweden: On 27 may [://mmm.stim.se/stim/prod/stimv4eng.nsf STI][://mmm.ksaday.com/2012/05/merubah-word-ke-pdf.html M] (Collecting society for composers, songwriters and music publishers) announced a two year trail that allows for their members to use CC-NC licenses. Currently running without involvement by CC-Sweden.
  • Collecting Society Projects/France: Pilot project between CC-France and [://mmm.sacem.fr/WportailSacem/jsp/ep/home.html SACEM] (Collecting Society for original music composers, authors and publishers)

Negotiations

  • Collecting Society Projects/Italy (page is currently empty): There are currently negotiations between CC-Italy and [://mmm.siae.it/index.asp SIAE] (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, representing all sorts of authors and publishers (not only in the field of music))
  • Collecting Society Projects/Australia There are currently negotiations between CC-Australia and [://mmm.apra-amcos.com.au APRA] (Collecting Society for original music composers, authors and publishers)
  • Collecting Society Projects/Germany (page is currently empty): There are currently negotiations between CC-Germany and [://mmm.vgwort.de/ VG-W][://mmm.ksaday.com/2012/05/obat-sakit-gigi.html o][://mmm.ksaday.com/2012/05/rumah-unik-terbaik-di-dunia.html r][://mmm.vgwort.de/ t] (Collecting Society for authors of literary, journalistic and scientific works)

links (to be moved elsewhere)

  • APRA "Creative Commons" page, ://mmm.apra.com.au/writers/forms_and_guidelines/creative_commons.asp
  • APRA CEO Brett Cottle's article on ArtsHub, ://mmm.artshub.com.au/au/news.asp?sId=70075
  • Opt APRA, ://mmm.optapra.net - [://mmm.onlinepsychology-degree.org ://mmm.onlinepsychology-degree.org]
  • Elliott Bledsoe's blog entry after the CCau Music Forum, ://ccelliott.blogspot.com/2007/11/post-music-industry-forum-reflections.html
  • Reform APRA MySpace with 'I support reforms for APRA' pledges from Australian musicians, ://mmm.myspace.com/optoutofapra
  • Improbable Match: Open Licences And Collecting Societies In Europe, ://mmm.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1291
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#####EOF##### Creative Commons DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Creative Commons DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure

Creative Commons DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure

Creative Commons DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure

Creative Commons abides by the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by responding to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the DMCA and other applicable laws. As part of our response, we may remove or disable access to material residing on a site that is controlled or operated by Creative Commons (such as creativecommons.org or sciencecommons.org) that is claimed to be infringing, in which case we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the person who submitted the affected material so that they may make a counter notification, also in accordance with the DMCA.

Creative Commons does not control content hosted on third party websites, and cannot remove content from sites it does not own or control. If you are the copyright owner of content hosted on a third party site, and you have not authorized the use of your content, please contact the administrator of that website directly to have the content removed.

Before serving either a Notice of Infringing Material or Counter-Notification, you may wish to contact a lawyer to better understand your rights and obligations under the DMCA and other applicable laws. The following notice requirements are intended to comply with Creative Commons’ rights and obligations under the DMCA and, in particular, section 512(c), and do not constitute legal advice.

Notice of Infringing Material

To file a notice of infringing material on a site owned or controlled by Creative Commons (such ascreativecommons.org or sciencecommons.org), please provide a notification containing the following details:

  1. Reasonably sufficient details to enable us to identify the work claimed to be infringed or, if multiple works are claimed to be infringed, a representative list of such works (for example: title, author, any registration or tracking number, URL);
  2. Reasonably sufficient detail to enable us to identify and locate the material that is claimed to be infringing (for example a link to the page that contains the material);
  3. Your contact information so that we can contact you (for example, your address, telephone number, email address);
  4. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material identified in (2) is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  5. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is alleged to be infringed.
  6. Your physical or electronic signature.

Then send this notice to:

By Mail:

DMCA Agent: Diane Peters
P.O. Box 1866
Mountain View, CA 94042

By Email:

Email: dmca@creativecommons.org

Counter-Notification

If material that you have posted to a site controlled or operated by Creative Commons (such as creativecommons.org, sciencecommons.org) has been taken down, you may file a counter-notification that contains the following details:

  1. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled;
  2. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material in question;
  3. Your name, address and telephone number;
  4. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for judicial district in which your address is located or, if your address is outside of the USA, for any judicial district in which Creative Commons may be found and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted a notice in compliance with the section (c)(1)(C) of the DMCA, as generally described above;
  5. Your physical or electronic signature.

Then send this notice to:

By Mail:

DMCA Agent: Diane Peters
P.O. Box 1866
Mountain View, CA 94042

Email: dmca@creativecommons.org

You may be able to find examples of counter-notifications at www.chillingeffects.org/dmca/counter512.pdf. Please note, however, that this is no substitute for legal advice and you should obtain legal advice to better understand your rights and obligations under the DMCA and applicable laws.

#####EOF##### Considerations for licensors and licensees - Creative Commons

Considerations for licensors and licensees

From Creative Commons
(Redirected from Before Licensing)
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The following list sets out some basic things that you should think about before you apply a Creative Commons license to your material, or use Creative Commons-licensed material. It is not an exhaustive list. If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to post to one of our email discussion lists, send us an email at info@creativecommons.org, send an email to one of our country project leads or obtain your own legal advice.

Considerations for Licensors - if you are licensing your own work
Considerations for Licensees - if you are using someone else's work

Contents

Considerations for licensors

Irrevocability

Remember the license may not be revoked.

Once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright and similar rights, even if you later stop distributing it.

Type of material

Make sure the material is appropriate for CC licensing.

CC licenses are appropriate for all types of content you want to share publicly, except software and hardware.

Specify precisely what it is you are licensing.

Any given work has multiple elements; e.g., text, images, music. Make sure to clearly mark or indicate in a notice which of those are covered by the license.

Nature and adequacy of rights

Make sure the material is subject to copyright or similar rights.

CC licenses are operative only where copyright, sui generis database rights, or other rights closely related to copyright come into play. They should not be applied to material in the public domain.

Clear rights needed to use the material.

If the material includes rights held by others, make sure to get permission to sublicense those rights under the CC license. If you created the material in the scope of your employment or as a work-for-hire, you may not be the holder of the rights and may need to get permission before applying a CC license.

Indicate rights not covered by the license.

Prominently mark or indicate in a notice any rights held by third parties, such as publicity or trademark rights. This includes any content you used under exceptions or limitations to copyright, and any third party content used under another license (even if it is the same CC license as you applied).

Type of license

Think about how you want the material to be used.

Consider what you hope to achieve by sharing your work when determining which of the six CC licenses to apply. For example, if you want it to appear in a Wikipedia article, it must be licensed using BY-SA or a compatible license.

Consider any obligations that may affect what type of license you apply.

Think about any obligations you have, such as licensing requirements from a funding source, employment agreement, or limitations on your ability to use a CC license imposed by a collecting society, that dictate which (if any) of the six CC licenses you can apply.

Additional provisions

Consider offering a warranty.

If you are confident you have cleared all rights in the material, you may choose to warrant that the work does not violate the rights of any third parties.

Specify additional permissions, if desired.

You have the option of granting permissions above and beyond what the license allows; for example, allowing licensees to translate ND-licensed material. If so, consider using CC+ to indicate the additional permissions offered.

Special preferences

Specify attribution information if desired.

You may indicate particular attribution parties, a URI for the material, and other attribution information for licensees to retain.

Indicate any non binding requests.

You may ask licensees to adhere to your special requests, such as marking or describing changes they make to your material.

Considerations for licensees

Understand the license.

Read the legal code, not just the deed.

The human-readable deed is a summary of, but not a replacement for, the legal code. It does not explain everything you need to know before using licensed material.

Make sure the license grants permission for what you want to do.

There are six different CC licenses. Two of the licenses prohibit the sharing of adaptations (BY-ND, BY-NC-ND); three prohibit commercial uses (BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA), and two require adaptations be licensed under the same license (BY-SA, BY-NC-SA).

Take note of the particular version of the license.

The current version (4.0) differs from prior versions in important respects. Similarly, the jurisdiction ports may differ in certain terms, such as dispute resolution and choice of law.

Scope of the license.

Pay attention to what exactly is being licensed.

The licensor should have marked which elements of the work are subject to the license and which are not. For those elements that are not subject to the license, you may need separate permission.

Consider clearing rights if you are concerned.

The license does not contain a warranty, so if you think there may be third party rights in the material, you may want to clear those rights in advance.

Some uses of licensed material do not require permission under the license.

If the use you want to make of a work falls within an exception or limitation to copyright or similar rights, you may do so. Those uses are unregulated by the license.

Know your obligations.

Provide attribution.

All CC licenses require you provide attribution and mark the material when you share it publicly. The specific requirements vary slightly across versions.

Do not restrict others from exercising rights under the license.

All CC licenses prohibit you from applying effective technological measures or imposing legal terms that would prevent others from doing what the license permits.

Determine what, if anything, you can do with adaptations you make.

Depending on what type of license is applied, you are limited in whether you can share your adaptation and if so, what license you can apply to your contributions.

Termination is automatic.

All CC licenses terminate automatically when you fail to comply with its terms. If the material is under a 4.0 license, you must fix the problem within 30 days of discovery if you want your rights automatically reinstated.

Consider licensor preferences.

Consider complying with non-binding requests by the licensor.

The licensor may make special requests when you use the material. We recommend you do so when reasonable, but that is your option and not your obligation.

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons Legal Code

Creative Commons

Creative Commons Legal Code

Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0

CREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION IS NOT A LAW FIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES. DISTRIBUTION OF THIS LICENSE DOES NOT CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. CREATIVE COMMONS PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS. CREATIVE COMMONS MAKES NO WARRANTIES REGARDING THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, AND DISCLAIMS LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ITS USE.

License

THE WORK (AS DEFINED BELOW) IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL" OR "LICENSE"). THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW. ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED.

BY EXERCISING ANY RIGHTS TO THE WORK PROVIDED HERE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. THE LICENSOR GRANTS YOU THE RIGHTS CONTAINED HERE IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

1. Definitions

  1. "Collective Work" means a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology or encyclopedia, in which the Work in its entirety in unmodified form, along with a number of other contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole. A work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work (as defined below) for the purposes of this License.
  2. "Derivative Work" means a work based upon the Work or upon the Work and other pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted, except that a work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this License. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a musical composition or sound recording, the synchronization of the Work in timed-relation with a moving image ("synching") will be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this License.
  3. "Licensor" means the individual or entity that offers the Work under the terms of this License.
  4. "Original Author" means the individual or entity who created the Work.
  5. "Work" means the copyrightable work of authorship offered under the terms of this License.
  6. "You" means an individual or entity exercising rights under this License who has not previously violated the terms of this License with respect to the Work, or who has received express permission from the Licensor to exercise rights under this License despite a previous violation.

2. Fair Use Rights. Nothing in this license is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws.

3. License Grant. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright) license to exercise the rights in the Work as stated below:

  1. to reproduce the Work, to incorporate the Work into one or more Collective Works, and to reproduce the Work as incorporated in the Collective Works;
  2. to distribute copies or phonorecords of, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission the Work including as incorporated in Collective Works.

  3. For the avoidance of doubt, where the work is a musical composition:

    1. Performance Royalties Under Blanket Licenses. Licensor waives the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a performance rights society (e.g. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), royalties for the public performance or public digital performance (e.g. webcast) of the Work.
    2. Mechanical Rights and Statutory Royalties. Licensor waives the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a music rights society or designated agent (e.g. Harry Fox Agency), royalties for any phonorecord You create from the Work ("cover version") and distribute, subject to the compulsory license created by 17 USC Section 115 of the US Copyright Act (or the equivalent in other jurisdictions).
  4. Webcasting Rights and Statutory Royalties. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a sound recording, Licensor waives the exclusive right to collect, whether individually or via a performance-rights society (e.g. SoundExchange), royalties for the public digital performance (e.g. webcast) of the Work, subject to the compulsory license created by 17 USC Section 114 of the US Copyright Act (or the equivalent in other jurisdictions).

The above rights may be exercised in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter devised. The above rights include the right to make such modifications as are technically necessary to exercise the rights in other media and formats, but otherwise you have no rights to make Derivative Works. All rights not expressly granted by Licensor are hereby reserved.

4. Restrictions.The license granted in Section 3 above is expressly made subject to and limited by the following restrictions:

  1. You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work only under the terms of this License, and You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier for, this License with every copy or phonorecord of the Work You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Work that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients' exercise of the rights granted hereunder. You may not sublicense the Work. You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Work as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License. If You create a Collective Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Collective Work any reference to such Licensor or the Original Author, as requested.
  2. If you distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work or Collective Works, You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and give the Original Author credit reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing by conveying the name (or pseudonym if applicable) of the Original Author if supplied; the title of the Work if supplied; and to the extent reasonably practicable, the Uniform Resource Identifier, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URI does not refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work. Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Collective Work, at a minimum such credit will appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as such other comparable authorship credit.

5. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer

UNLESS OTHERWISE MUTUALLY AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES IN WRITING, LICENSOR OFFERS THE WORK AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MATERIALS, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE ABSENCE OF LATENT OR OTHER DEFECTS, ACCURACY, OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS, WHETHER OR NOT DISCOVERABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SUCH EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

6. Limitation on Liability. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS LICENSE OR THE USE OF THE WORK, EVEN IF LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

7. Termination

  1. This License and the rights granted hereunder will terminate automatically upon any breach by You of the terms of this License. Individuals or entities who have received Collective Works from You under this License, however, will not have their licenses terminated provided such individuals or entities remain in full compliance with those licenses. Sections 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will survive any termination of this License.
  2. Subject to the above terms and conditions, the license granted here is perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright in the Work). Notwithstanding the above, Licensor reserves the right to release the Work under different license terms or to stop distributing the Work at any time; provided, however that any such election will not serve to withdraw this License (or any other license that has been, or is required to be, granted under the terms of this License), and this License will continue in full force and effect unless terminated as stated above.

8. Miscellaneous

  1. Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform the Work, the Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License.
  2. If any provision of this License is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of the terms of this License, and without further action by the parties to this agreement, such provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make such provision valid and enforceable.
  3. No term or provision of this License shall be deemed waived and no breach consented to unless such waiver or consent shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged with such waiver or consent.
  4. This License constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the Work licensed here. There are no understandings, agreements or representations with respect to the Work not specified here. Licensor shall not be bound by any additional provisions that may appear in any communication from You. This License may not be modified without the mutual written agreement of the Licensor and You.

Creative Commons is not a party to this License, and makes no warranty whatsoever in connection with the Work. Creative Commons will not be liable to You or any party on any legal theory for any damages whatsoever, including without limitation any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising in connection to this license. Notwithstanding the foregoing two (2) sentences, if Creative Commons has expressly identified itself as the Licensor hereunder, it shall have all rights and obligations of Licensor.

Except for the limited purpose of indicating to the public that the Work is licensed under the CCPL, neither party will use the trademark "Creative Commons" or any related trademark or logo of Creative Commons without the prior written consent of Creative Commons. Any permitted use will be in compliance with Creative Commons' then-current trademark usage guidelines, as may be published on its website or otherwise made available upon request from time to time.

Creative Commons may be contacted at https://creativecommons.org/.

« Back to Commons Deed
#####EOF##### NonCommercial interpretation - Creative Commons

NonCommercial interpretation

From Creative Commons
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THIS PAGE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE OR REPRESENTATION. CONSULT YOUR OWN LEGAL COUNSEL FOR LEGAL ADVICE.

The NonCommercial license element

The NonCommercial (“NC”) element is found in three of the six CC licenses: BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, and BY-NC-ND. In each of these licenses, NonCommercial is expressly defined as follows:

“NonCommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.”

The definition is intent-based and intentionally flexible in recognition of the many possible factual situations and business models that may exist now or develop later. Clear-cut rules exist even though there may be gray areas, and debates have ensued over its interpretation. In practice, the number of actual conflicts between licensors and licensees over its meaning appear to be few. [1]

This page sets forth fundamentals of how the definition of NonCommercial operates and should be interpreted from CC’s perspective as the steward of the CC license suite. We provide some key points to consider before choosing an NC license for your own work or before using an NC-licensed work.

NonCommercial explained

Creative Commons NC licenses expressly define NonCommercial as “not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” [2] The inclusion of “primarily” in the definition recognizes that no activity is completely disconnected from commercial activity; it is only the primary purpose of the reuse that needs to be considered.

The definition of NonCommercial is intentionally flexible; the definition is specific enough to make its intended operation and reach clear, but versatile enough to cover a wide variety of use cases. Narrowly or exhaustively attempting to prescribe every permitted and prohibited activity is an impossible task and, in Creative Commons’ judgment, an ill-advised one. Thus, the definition sets out a principle for determining what uses do and do not qualify, but does not list specific use cases (aside from peer-to-peer file sharing). [3]

Key points about the NonCommercial licenses

The NonCommercial limitation applies to licensed uses only and does not restrict use by the licensor.

As with all CC licenses, the NC licenses only restrict what a reuser may do under the license and not what the licensor (rights holder) can do. Licensors that make their works available under an NC license are always free to monetize their works.

NonCommercial turns on the use, not the identity of the reuser.

The definition of NonCommercial depends on the primary purpose for which the work is used, not on the category or class of reuser. [4] Specifically, a reuser need not be in education, in government, an individual, or a recognized charity/nonprofit in the relevant jurisdiction in order to use an NC-licensed work. A reuser that is not obviously noncommercial in nature may use NC-licensed content if its use is NonCommercial in accordance with the definition. The context and purpose of the use is relevant when making the determination, but no class of reuser is per se permitted or excluded from using an NC-licensed work.

Reusers may make NonCommercial uses only, even when reusing NC material with other works.

The NC licenses limit reusers to NonCommercial uses of the work only, which includes when the work is used in a collection or when it is adapted. For example, an NC essay may not be included as part of a collection in a commercially distributed book of essays, even if it is only a small portion of the book. For an example of an adaptation, an NC song may be used as the basis for a video where the visual elements are under a different license such as the BY license. When the music video is distributed as a whole, it may not be used commercially because of the NC license of the song.

The NonCommercial term does not limit uses otherwise allowed by limitations and exceptions to copyright.

Nothing in the NC licenses (or any CC license) controls or conditions uses—even commercial uses—covered by an exception or limitation to copyright or similar rights, or otherwise controls any activity for which no permission under such rights is required. For example, a person may commercially use an NC-licensed work for purposes of criticism in jurisdictions where this is a fair use or otherwise covered by an exception to copyright. Similarly, because posting a link to a work does not require permission under copyright, a for-profit university may still include a link to NC-licensed courseware in a syllabus or on its paywalled website. In such cases, the CC license never comes into play and the NC restriction (and other limitations or conditions contained in the license) may be disregarded.

Explanations of NC do not modify the CC license.

Some licensors or website providers state expectations or interpretations about what NC means. Those explanations never form part of the CC license, even if included in terms of service or another resource designed to contractually bind reusers. CC strongly discourages the practice when such statements carve back (rather than expand) on reuses allowed by the NC definition or contradict the plain meaning of the licenses. When those statements are intended to bind reusers or to modify the CC license, no CC trademarks may be associated with either the work or the terms under which it is offered. For more information about CC’s license modification policy, visit this page.

NonCommercial licenses are non-exclusive.

Like all CC licenses, the NC licenses are non-exclusive. This means that an NC licensor is free to offer the material under other terms, including on commercial terms. A frequently discussed use case for the NC licenses is a creator who wishes to allow NonCommercial use but also authorizes commercial uses in exchange for payment. (Additional permissions such as this may always be offered; licensors may also use our CC+ protocol to offer these in a standardized manner.) Also, licensees are always free to contact licensors to ask permission to use the work for commercial purposes.

For a given work, permitted NC uses may still be restricted due to non-copyright rights.

Even if a use is NonCommercial for purposes of the CC license, it may still not be permitted because of other rights that prevent that particular use of the work. For example, a use that is otherwise NonCommercial could violate the publicity or personality rights of an individual featured in the work.

Choosing NC for your content

Before opting to use an NC license for your material, consider the following:

  • The NC licenses may not permit some uses of your work that you would like others to make. For example, not all educational uses are necessarily NonCommercial uses, so your use of an NC license may preclude use of your work in some educational contexts.
  • The NC licenses may not be compatible for remixing with many works. For example, a person may not remix BY-SA content (such as Wikipedia content) with BY-NC content. For more information, please see the FAQ entry and chart.
  • Consider whether you have a commercial licensing stream -- or expect to have such a licensing stream -- that you want to protect, and whether the NC limitation accomplishes your goals. The NC licenses may not adequately protect that stream or other uses that you wish to restrict. For example, NC licensing does not stop commercial uses covered by limitations and exceptions (such as fair uses), and even noncommercial uses could affect the commercial market for your work.
  • NC licenses may not be permitted under policies of institutions or publications you wish to create content for, or in line with the terms of grants that fund your work. Similarly, consider whether your publisher or any collecting society of which you are a member allows you to use a NonCommercial license, if any CC license at all, and how that affects your ability to collect royalties for commercial uses of your work. Keep in mind that CC’s definition of NonCommercial may differ from the definition used by your publisher or collecting society, so even if you can license your work for noncommercial purposes you may not be able to use CC’s NC licenses.
  • Policymakers may wish to consider reasons supporting the use of a less restrictive license (such as BY) or the public domain (CC0) for publicly funded materials, and promote those options. The Open Policy Network provides resources with more information for finding out who uses these policies, and why.
  • NC licenses do not qualify as “open licenses” under the Open Definition, and works licensed under an NC license are not considered Free Cultural Works. This may be important if you want others to further distribute your work on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, or other platforms requiring a license that meets the Open Definition or the Definition of Free Cultural Works.

Disclaimer: THIS PAGE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE OR REPRESENTATION. CONSULT YOUR OWN LEGAL COUNSEL FOR LEGAL ADVICE.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ This conclusion is borne out by the Defining Noncommercial Study.
  2. ↑ “Private” (formerly preceding “monetary compensation”) was removed in version 4.0. This change did not alter the meaning but instead removed an irrelevant and potentially confusing term. It is the only change made in version 4.0 to the definition among all versions of the CC NonCommercial licenses.
  3. ↑ This use case, which has remained essentially unchanged across all license versions, provides that the exchange of an NC-licensed work for another copyrighted work via peer-to-peer file sharing networks or otherwise is not a violation of the NC term provided no compensation changes hands.
  4. ↑ There are likely more uses that nonprofit entities can make of an NC-licensed work and not be viewed as violating the NC term, but any interpretation of NonCommercial that assumes all uses by for-profit entities are automatically commercial conflicts with the plain language of the definition.
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#####EOF##### Intergovernmental Organizations - Creative Commons

Intergovernmental Organizations

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Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are using CC to share research, data, and educational materials they produce. IGOs, like all creators who want wide dissemination of their content, realize they can benefit greatly from the use of Creative Commons licenses--maximizing the impact of their resources and efforts. A number of IGOs believe that as publicly minded institutions, adopting an open licensing policy for at least some subset of their publications is the preferred mechanism for ensuring the broadest and most widespread use and reuse of the information they publish.

This page explains some of the benefits for IGOs choosing to publish content under Creative Commons licenses, clarifies some unique legal considerations, provides case study of IGOs already using CC, aggregates relevant frequently asked questions, and addresses common licensing scenarios and options available to IGOs.

Why Intergovernmental Organizations Benefit from Using CC

IGOs' missions are aligned with sharing information and resources

Disseminating useful information globally is aligned with the mission and work of most IGOs. Sharing information and content -- ranging from education assessment metrics to cultural heritage resources to research studies on the environmental impact of fossil fuels to health information -- is central to the success of IGOs. Information and content that IGOs create can be made maximally useful to the diverse communities they serve, helping citizens, governments, civic institutions, and businesses across all sectors.

CC helps clarify rights to users in advance

Materials like reports, photographs and videos released under the default All Rights Reserved copyright require the end user to ask permission in order to use the resource in the absence of some applicable exception or limitation under applicable copyright law. This framework means IGOs must dedicate resources to review and approve those requests. From the user perspective, the time and effort required to obtain the permission can be significant. The result is that resources are less likely to be used, shared, or repurposed, significantly diminishing the potential impact of information published. (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has described the challenges to dissemination of information under the All Rights Reserved copyright framework as follows: "While information technology makes it possible to multiply and distribute content worldwide and almost at no cost, legal restrictions on the reuse of copyrighted material hamper its negotiability in the digital environment ... [T]he Creative Commons license is by far the best-known license for such content, the use of which is growing exponentially." OECD (2007) Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources, p.13.

Creative Commons licenses offer a simple, standardized way to grant flexible copyright permissions in advance. The adoption of Creative Commons licenses increases the dissemination, discoverability, reuse, and translatability of research and education materials. CC licenses are the global standard for open content licenses, and are leveraged by corporations, institutions, and government bodies worldwide. Creative Commons licenses lower the transaction costs normally associated with seeking and granting permission to use resources by granting limited permission in advance.

CC helps ensure IGOs receive credit for the resources they create

IGOs who use CC licenses get the credit they deserve for the work they create. All CC licenses require that attribution be given to author in the manner specified. IGOs also need not worry about expending resources crafting custom terms of service specifying how their works can be used. Creative Commons licenses contain vetted, legally robust standard copyright terms and conditions. These common features serve as the baseline, on top of which IGOs can choose to grant additional permissions if desired.

FAQ: CC Licenses and IGOs

IGOs are unique in several respects from individuals and other organizations. Below are some common questions about how CC licenses work for IGOs.

Can intergovernmental organizations ("IGOs") use CC licenses?

Anyone may use CC licenses for works they own, including IGOs. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons published a 3.0 ported license suite specifically intended for use by IGOs. These ported licenses -- known as the 3.0 IGO ported licenses -- grant all of the same permissions as our international (unported) 3.0 licenses; however, they have two unique provisions. First, unlike all other 3.0 licenses, where the licensor is an IGO then unless otherwise mutually agreed, disputes are resolved by mediation or, if that is unsuccessful, through arbitration. This provision was included in response to the challenges IGOs face with enforcing their copyright. IGOs have privileges and immunities from national legal processes, including judicial processes. Waiving that immunity so they can bring suit in a national legal forum can be exceedingly difficult. Instead, IGOs typically use mediation and arbitration as the preferred means to resolve legal disputes.

Second, unlike the other 3.0 licenses, the 3.0 IGO ported licenses contain a cure period just like CC's new 4.0 licenses. If a licensee fixes a license violation within 30 days of discovery, the license automatically reinstates. The inclusion of the provision is intended to help reduce the likelihood that mediation and arbitration become necessary.

What should I know before I use a work licensed under the IGO 3.0 ported licenses?

You should be aware of the dispute resolution mechanism in the license, which is contained in Section 8(h). Disputes involving works licensed by IGOs under the licenses are resolved by mediation and arbitration.

Generally, mediation is a process used to avoid settling a dispute in court. The process typically involves a neutral third party (called a mediator) who tries to help the parties resolve the dispute. Mediation is not binding, however, unless the parties agree otherwise. Arbitration is also used to avoid settling a dispute in court, but the third party (called an arbitrator) has authority to make a decision in favor of one party. Arbitration tends to be more formal than mediation.

Before using any work licensed by an IGO under the IGO 3.0 ported licenses, be sure you understand what the mediation and arbitration processes are that have been chosen by the IGO and know what they mean for you. IGOs typically designate those in the copyright notice attached to the work.

How does the mediation and arbitration provision work?

Assuming a violation of the license has occurred and the dispute cannot be amicably resolved, the process starts with mediation. The IGO/licensor sends a notice of mediation to the licensee designating the mediation rules if those are not already identified in the copyright notice accompanying the work. If mediation is unsuccessful, then either the licensor or licensee can chose to commence arbitration. If arbitration becomes necessary, then those proceedings allow for remote participation (e.g., by teleconference, written submissions, etc.) whenever practicable.

IGOs have the ability to designate the particular mediation and arbitration rules in the copyright notice attached to the work, though the licensor and user of the work can always agree otherwise. If none is designated and no agreement is reached, then the mediation rules will be those identified in the notice of mediation sent to the licensee. If the matter progresses to arbitration, then unless otherwise stated in the copyright notice the rules that apply are the current Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (known as the UNCITRAL arbitration rules). The UNCITRAL rules are widely used by IGOs and others.

Note that Creative Commons does not endorse any particular mediation or arbitration rules. Creative Commons has published special deeds for the IGO 3.0 ported licenses that emphasize that disputes are resolved by mediation and arbitration. You should always take note before using a work by an IGO whether the license used is an IGO 3.0 ported license.

Do the 3.0 IGO ported licenses operate differently in other respects?

No, the only differences are the mediation and arbitration processes and the ability to cure a violation and regain your rights as a licensee. CC and the IGOs took great care to ensure that the interpretation of the licenses are no different otherwise than the 3.0 international licenses. The adjudicating body (the mediation or arbitration tribunal) will interpret the scope of the license and remaining obligations in accordance with general principles of international law. Exceptions and limitations remain unregulated by those licenses as well.

Note that the IGO 3.0 port is designed so that only IGOs as defined in the license are able to use mediation and arbitration. It is not available to anyone else using the licenses.

Examples of CC License Use by Intergovernmental Organizations

Commonwealth of Learning

European Cultural Foundation

European Funded

  • http://www.communia-project.eu/about COMMUNIA - The European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain, funded by the European Commission (the executive of the European Union), CC BY-SA (Unported).
  • European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) - CERN publishes its book catalog online as open data using the CC0 public domain dedication and the results of some Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments are published under various Creative Commons licenses.

European Space Agency

Inter-American Development Bank

  • The Inter-American Development Bank is requiring the adoption of Creative Commons by the organizations that receive funding from the Bank in the context of the FOMIN (Fondo Multiateral de Inversiones) initiatives, particularly the ICT4BUS, a fund that promotes the adoption of e-commerce in the American continent, which has financed more that thirty initiatives in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua and other Latin American countries. Banks require those initiative to use the GPL to license any software developed by organizations receiving support from the bank, and CC to license the documentation related with those computer programs, such as user manuals.

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

World Bank

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Intergovernmental_Organizations&oldid=116994"

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#####EOF##### Licensing types - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work > Licensing types

Licensing types

The following describes each of the six main licenses offered when you choose to publish your work with a Creative Commons license. We have listed them starting with the most accommodating license type you can choose and ending with the most restrictive license type you can choose.

License Conditions

Creators choose a set of conditions they wish to apply to their work.

Attribution Attribution (by)

All CC licenses require that others who use your work in any way must give you credit the way you request, but not in a way that suggests you endorse them or their use. If they want to use your work without giving you credit or for endorsement purposes, they must get your permission first.

ShareAlike ShareAlike (sa)

You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first.

NonCommercial NonCommercial (nc)

You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivatives) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permission first.

NoDerivatives NoDerivatives (nd)

You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first.

#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Public domain - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work > Public domain

Public domain

Our licenses help authors keep and manage their copyright on terms they choose. Our public domain tools, on the other hand, enable authors and copyright owners who want to dedicate their works to the worldwide public domain to do so, and facilitate the labeling and discovery of works that are already free of known copyright restrictions.

CC0

Use this universal tool if you are a holder of copyright or database rights, and you wish to waive all your interests that may exist in your work worldwide. Because copyright laws differ around the world, you may use this tool even though you may not have copyright in your jurisdiction, but want to be sure to eliminate any copyrights you may have in other jurisdictions.

Public Domain Mark

Use this tool if you have identified a work that is free of known copyright restrictions. Creative Commons does not recommend this tool for works that are restricted by copyright laws in one or more jurisdictions.

#####EOF##### Open access Archives - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Open access

Open access

European Commission forging ahead to boost public sector information and open science

  While the EU copyright reform teeters on the edge of turning into a complete disaster, last week the European Commission published a proposal for a revision of the Directive on the reuse of public sector information (PSI Directive), and a recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information. Both of these documents are … Read More “European Commission forging ahead to boost public sector information and open science”

Open access

A Thank You to Everyone Who Supported Diego and Open Access to Knowledge

In December Diego Gómez was finally cleared of the criminal charges levied against him for sharing an academic research paper on the internet. The Tribunal de Bogotá—the Colombian appellate court—affirmed the lower court’s acquittal. Gómez is a scientist from Colombia who had been criminally prosecuted for the last three years for sharing an academic paper … Read More “A Thank You to Everyone Who Supported Diego and Open Access to Knowledge”

Open access

Colombian appellate court affirms: Diego Gómez not guilty for sharing research paper online

Yesterday we learned that the Tribunal de Bogotá—the Colombian appellate court—has affirmed the lower court’s acquittal of Diego Gómez. Gómez is a scientist from Colombia who has been criminally prosecuted for the last three years for sharing an academic paper online. When Diego was a student in conservation biology in Colombia, he had poor access … Read More “Colombian appellate court affirms: Diego Gómez not guilty for sharing research paper online”

Open access

Open In Order To…Fulfill Our Vision for Universal Access to Research and Education

It’s Open Access Week, the yearly global event to raise broad awareness about the opportunities and benefits for open access to scientific and scholarly research. Open Access Week—now in its 10th year—also mobilises action for progressive policy changes so that researchers and the public get immediate online access to the results of scholarly research, and … Read More “Open In Order To…Fulfill Our Vision for Universal Access to Research and Education”

Open access

Open In Order To…Guarantee Access to the Laws That Govern Us

It’s Open Access Week, the yearly global event to raise broad awareness about the opportunities and benefits for open access to scientific and scholarly research. Open Access Week—now in its 10th year—also mobilises action for progressive policy changes so that researchers and the public get immediate online access to the results of scholarly research, and … Read More “Open In Order To…Guarantee Access to the Laws That Govern Us”

Open access

Open In Order To…Accelerate Research and Scientific Discoveries

It’s Open Access Week, the yearly global event to raise broad awareness about the opportunities and benefits for open access to scientific and scholarly research. Open Access Week—now in its 10th year—also mobilises action for progressive policy changes so that researchers and the public get immediate online access to the results of scholarly research, and … Read More “Open In Order To…Accelerate Research and Scientific Discoveries”

Open access

Open In Order To…Promote Knowledge Sharing, Not Criminalize It

It’s Open Access Week, the yearly global event to raise broad awareness about the opportunities and benefits for open access to scientific and scholarly research. Open Access Week—now in its 10th year—also mobilises action for progressive policy changes so that researchers and the public get immediate online access to the results of scholarly research, and … Read More “Open In Order To…Promote Knowledge Sharing, Not Criminalize It”

Open access

Open In Order To…Maximize Reuse Possibilities of Research

It’s Open Access Week, a yearly global event to raise broad awareness about the opportunities and benefits for open access to scientific and scholarly research. Open Access Week—now in its 10th year—mobilises action for progressive policy changes so that researchers and the public get immediate online access to the results of scholarly research and the … Read More “Open In Order To…Maximize Reuse Possibilities of Research”

Open access

Contribuye al Fondo de Defensa Legal de Diego Gómez

Hace tres semanas reportamos que Diego Gómez, estudiante Colombiano demandado por compartir por internet un paper académico, ha sido absuelto de los cargos penales en su contra. Pero hace algunos días los abogados del denunciante apelaron a la decisión del juez de primera instancia, lo que implica que luego de varios años de procedimientos judiciales … Read More “Contribuye al Fondo de Defensa Legal de Diego Gómez”

Open access

Contribute to the Diego Gómez Legal Defense Fund

Support Diego by donating today! Three weeks ago we reported that Diego Gómez, the former Colombian student who’s been prosecuted for sharing a research paper online, had been acquitted of criminal charges. But within days of the ruling, the author’s lawyer appealed the decision, meaning that even after several years of unnecessary (and expensive) criminal … Read More “Contribute to the Diego Gómez Legal Defense Fund”

Open access
#####EOF##### Public reports - Creative Commons

Public reports

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The purpose of this portal is to provide transparent access to public documents concerning the financial status and governance of the Creative Commons organization.

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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

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You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

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Creative Commons has updated its Master Terms of Service and Master Privacy Policy, effective November 7, 2017. Before continuing on our websites or using our services, please review.
You are using a tool for freeing your own work of copyright restrictions around the world. You may use this tool even if your work is free of copyright in some jurisdictions, if you want to ensure it is free everywhere. This may be the case if you are a museum or library reproducing a work in the public domain and want to convey clearly to the public that you claim no copyright in your digital copy. Creative Commons does not recommend this tool for works that are already in the public domain worldwide. Instead, please use the Public Domain Mark for such works.

Using CC0, you can waive all copyrights and related or neighboring rights that you may have in all jurisdictions worldwide, such as your moral rights (to the extent waivable), your publicity or privacy rights, rights you have protecting against unfair competition, and database rights and rights protecting the extraction, dissemination and reuse of data.

Keep in mind that you cannot waive rights to a work that you do not own unless you have permission from the owner. To avoid infringing third party rights, you should consult with your legal advisor if you are unsure whether you have all the rights you need to distribute the work.

Please note that this is not a registration process and Creative Commons does not store or save any of the information you enter. This tool guides you through the process of generating HTML with embedded metadata for marking your work as being available under CC0. Your work will not be associated with CC0 or made available under CC0 until you publish it marked as being so.

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Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Europeans should tell Parliament to vote NO to copyright filters - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Policy / advocacy / copyright reform > Europeans should tell Parliament to vote NO to copyright filters

Europeans should tell Parliament to vote NO to copyright filters

Timothy Vollmer

March 21, 2019

It’s the end of the line for the EU’s proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. The dramatic negative effects of upload filters would be disastrous to the vision Creative Commons cares about as an organisation and global community. The continued inclusion of Article 13 makes the directive impossible to support as-is.

Last month the Parliament, Council, and Commission completed their trilogue negotiations and reached a final compromise on the copyright directive text. Soon thereafter the EU Member State Ambassadors and the Parliament’s legal affairs committee gave a green light, now leading to a final vote in the plenary session of the Parliament scheduled for March 26.

Next week all 751 MEPs will get a chance vote on whether to adopt the copyright directive, or send it back to the drawing board.

Upload filters will turn the web upside down

From a copyright perspective, Article 13 turns how the web works on its head. It will require nearly all for-profit web platforms that permit user generated content uploads to either get a license for all user uploads or otherwise install copyright filters and censor content. If the platforms don’t comply, they could become liable for massive copyright infringement damages. The logical outcome is that this will harm existing platforms and prevent the creation and flourishing of new and innovative services in Europe because those new players don’t have the money, pull, or expertise to conclude licensing deals or build (or pay for) the necessary filtering technologies. Instead, the established companies will simply become more entrenched and dominant, as services like YouTube have a headstart on both of these fronts. We cannot support a copyright ecosystem that will simply entrench the extensive market power of incumbent players and, at the same time, create unnecessary roadblocks for new platforms and services that stimulate creativity and sharing.

This reversal of the liability regime that all but ensures upload filters will need to be implemented has another disconcerting consequence: user rights are thrown out the window because filtering technologies can’t possibly know when a work is infringing and when a work is being legally used under an exception to copyright. Such a system will almost surely curtail freedom of expression, as platforms will mitigate any risk by simply blocking content regardless of whether the use is sanctioned under the exceptions to copyright, such as for criticism, quotation, and parody.

The road to here

Over the last several years, Creative Commons has been working to support copyright changes in Europe that champion the commons and the public interest. We’ve done this as part of the Communia Association, civil society organisations, research groups, user rights activists, and open web advocates. CC submitted comments to the initial consultation from the Commission, made a joint analysis and suggestions for improvement with our network in Europe, advocated to protect scientific research, and offered voting recommendations on many provisions within the sweeping copyright directive.

Communia and other NGOs on the ground in Europe have supported positive changes to key aspects of the reform that would benefit research, education, and the public good, particularly working to improve the exceptions for text and data mining and education, as well changes to support the public domain and improve the ability of cultural heritage institutions to make content available online. The tireless efforts of organisations and individuals who stepped up to defend the commons and improve various parts of the directive that supports robust user rights should be celebrated. Their detailed research, writing, and advocacy has done so much to improve many parts not-so-well covered yet incredibly important pieces of the directive.

What you can do now

CC believes that our vision of universal access to research and education and full participation in culture will only be achieved when we all have copyright policies that truly promote creativity and protect users rights in the digital age. With Article 13, it’s no exaggeration to say that it’ll fundamentally change the way people are able to use the internet and share online. Even with some of the minor improvements to other aspects of the copyright reform package, on balance a directive that contains Article 13 will do more harm than good.

If you’re in Europe go to https://saveyourinternet.eu/act/ to tell your MEPs you don’t support a copyright reform that turns how we create and share on the web upside down. If Article 13 can’t be removed, then policymakers should reject the reform outright and begin again.

Category:Policy / advocacy / copyright reform
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#####EOF##### Creative Commons

Main Page

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Welcome to the CC Wiki! The purpose of this wiki is to help you learn more about CC and give you a chance to collaborate with us. CC relies on its community of users to keep it strong, so now is your chance to get involved! To learn more about wikis and how to edit them, visit our Getting Started page.
Please login with your CCID by clicking the log in link above -- If you have any questions or problems, please write to info@creativecommons.org.
Accounts must be approved before you can edit the CC Wiki -- Please write to info@creativecommons.org providing your CCID and something to prove you are a real person who wants to edit the Wiki.


More about CC

FAQ

Page of Frequently Asked Questions, with information on all aspects of Creative Commons licensing.

Developers

Resources for software developers interested in developing tools to facilitate the use and growth of Creative Commons licenses and standards.

Marking

List of best practices for marking content with CC licenses.

Web Integration

Everything a web-based (media) hosting site needs to know to integrate CC and CC-related features.

Affiliate Network*

The CC Affiliate Network consists of 100+ affiliates working in over 79 jurisdictions to support and promote CC activities around the world.

*As of January 2018, the Affiliate Network transitioned to a Global Network, where everyone - individuals and institutions - are welcome. The Creative Commons Global Network works together to realize our shared values and build relationships around the world. Interested in signing up? Become a member at https://network.creativecommons.org/.

Open Educational Resources

Read about Open Educational Resources (OER) and how Creative Commons supports the movement.

Wiki Projects

Translate

Help us translate our wiki, web content, videos and more.

Version 4.0 of the CC License Suite

CC has released a new version of its core license suite, version 4.0.

Case Studies

Past, present, and future "CC success stories" to help measure the impact of Creative Commons around the world. Everyone is encouraged to contribute!

Content Directories

A list of organizations and projects powered with Creative Commons licenses.

Events

Upcoming Creative Commons-relevant events around the world: get details, add an event, learn how to start a ccSalon, and sign up for our events mailing list.

OER Project

Contribute to CC's OER wiki-databases and pages.

Documentation

Large-scale CC specifications, recommendations, white papers, tutorials.

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#####EOF##### CC0 - Creative Commons

CC0

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CC0 is the "no copyright reserved" option in the Creative Commons toolkit - it effectively means relinquishing all copyright and similar rights that you hold in a work and dedicating those rights to the public domain.

CC0 is a single purpose tool, designed to take on the dedication function of the former, deprecated Public Domain Dedication and Certification.

How effectively CC0 works will depend on the legal regime in which the work is used, but the tool is intended to effectively release rights even in jurisdictions where it is difficult to do so.

Note that CC0 is a three-tier instrument. We recognize that a waiver may not be effective in some jurisdictions. CC0's enforceability is not solely dependent on the waiver. The fall back public license -- the second tier -- is similar to our Attribution-only license but without the attribution requirement. The third tier is a non-assertion by the copyright holder that even if the waiver and license do not operate as intended, the copyright holder will not take any actions that prevent a user of the work from exercising rights consistent with the intention of the copyright holder as expressed in CC0.

For detailed information, see the CC0 FAQ.

CC0 Translations

Translations of CC0 may be conducted according to the Legal Code Translation Policy.

See the CC0 translations completed or in progress.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=CC0&oldid=115888"

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#####EOF##### CC + Google Summer of Code 2019 - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Technology > CC + Google Summer of Code 2019

CC + Google Summer of Code 2019

We are proud to announce that Creative Commons has been accepted as a mentor organization for the 2019 Google Summer of Code program.

Kriti Godey

March 4, 2019

We are proud to announce that Creative Commons has been accepted as a mentor organization for the 2019 Google Summer of Code program.

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a annual global program through which Google awards stipends to university students who write code for free and open-source software projects during their school break. CC has been a mentor organization for GSoC on seven previous occasions, but our last participation was in 2013, so we are glad to be reviving the tradition and hosting students again.

We’ve compiled a list of project ideas for students to choose from when submitting their work proposal. There’s a lot of variety to choose from – adding features to CC Search, reviving older CC products, creating entirely new tools that increase the reach of CC licenses, figuring out ways to better present our legal and technical work, and more. There is definitely room for creativity – the project ideas are defined in broad terms, and students may also choose to submit a proposal for an original idea.

One of the goals of the CC engineering team this year is to build an active developer community around our projects. We’ve been writing free and open-source software for over a decade. Lately, we haven’t done the best job of enabling external developers to contribute to those projects. Hosting Google Summer of Code is our first step to change that for the better, and we’re also actively working on several other improvements to our code and processes, such as:

  • Creative Commons Open Source, a hub for the CC developer community.
  • Making CC Search’s development more transparent. Our current sprint workload is already public and we’ll be releasing a roadmap soon.
  • General cleanup, documentation, and contribution guidelines for our projects.
  • A technical blog.

If you want to stay updated on our work, join our brand new developer mailing list, the #creativecommons-dev IRC channel on freenode, or the #cc-developers and #cc-gsoc channels on our Slack community. And if you’re a student (or know a student), please consider submitting a Google Summer of Code proposal! It’s a great way to get an introduction to open-source, build real-world skills, work on interesting technical challenges, and help advance CC’s mission.

Category:Technology

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#####EOF##### Team - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Team

Team

Creative Commons is a network of staff, board, emeritus, advisory council, audit committee, and affiliates around the world.


Our Staff


Our Board


Emeritus


Advisory Council


Audit Committee


Ryan, Mari, and Alison work through 0941176 B.C. Ltd. — a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Commons whose sole activity is to provide services to CC. 0941176 B.C. Ltd. is operated separately from our CC Canada affiliate.

#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Global Network Charter - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Global Affiliate Network > Global Network Charter

Global Network Charter

The Charter is an agreement between an individual person or an institution, in the Creative Commons Global Network, have with all of the other Members and Institutional Members of the Creative Commons network and Creative Commons.

This Charter includes the list of values we share, the principles that guide our work and mutual responsibilities. It also identifies policies with which all Members and others, if acting in the name of Creative Commons (when allowed) or a participant in a Chapter or elsewhere in our network in any capacity, must adhere in order to safeguard the reputation of Creative Commons and the coordination of activities in the course of pursuing our shared mission and objectives.

Download as a PDF: Global_Network_Membership_Charter.pdf (07.11.2017 Public Version)

Important Note: Unofficial translations of this Charter and other network-related governance documents may be provided in other languages. In the event of conflict between any unofficial translation and the original English language version, the English language version shall control.

#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### 4.0 draft 4 ready for comment - final consultation before publication - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > 4.0 draft 4 ready for comment — final consultation before publication

4.0 draft 4 ready for comment — final consultation before publication

Diane Peters

September 12, 2013

We are delighted to finally publish the fourth and final draft of the 4.0 license suite for public comment. We are publishing draft 4 of BY-NC-SA today, and will publish the other five licenses over the course of the next few days.

The prior public comment period – lengthy as it was – netted important input from the community, stakeholders, and our affiliate community. It was also the signal for CC to pause and consider one final time what more we might do to make the license suite as long-lasting, international, and easy to use as possible. We have introduced changes in this draft that we feel accomplish these goals more completely. A few highlights follow – read more on our 4.0 wiki.

ShareAlike – In discussions with our community (including our affiliate network), it has become evident that there exist several different understandings about how ShareAlike operates — in particular, whether and how the licenses “stack” when different SA licenses are applied (such as ports and later versions), like they stack for adaptations of BY and BY-NC works. We also know that in practice, many (perhaps even most) users of those remixes look only to the last SA license applied as the source of their obligations as to all copyright holders.

Given the expected longevity of the 4.0 suite, we are taking the opportunity now to insert a provision (see Section 2(a)5)) that brings the legal code fully in line with what we believe is the prevailing practice and expectation. Thus, while the original license continues to apply to the original, all copyrights in remixes of 4.0 SA-licensed works will be under a unified set of terms and conditions (those of the last SA license applied), even when a later version of the SA license is applied by a downstream remixer. We welcome input on this important revision.

Effective Technological Measures – While we are retaining the prohibition on these measures, we are taking the opportunity to clarify within the license what has been long-standing confusion over what is and is not prohibited. We introduce in draft 4 a new defined term that makes clear that the prohibition is limited to those technologies that have the effect of imposing legal restrictions on reuse, just as our licenses prohibit additional terms that restrict reuse.

Attribution – Draft 4 improves inter-version compatibility between 4.0 and prior license suites while retaining the new addition introduced earlier that subjects all requirements to a standard of reasonableness.

Other improvements include consolidation of provisions relating to sui generis databse rights for ease of reference and to reduce confusion, eliminating an unnecessary (and confusing) license interpretation clause, removal of a provision that would have allowed customized warranties to form part of the license, and other language clean up and simplification. Read more about the changes and improvements to draft 4, including a comparison of this draft to Draft 3 [PDF] and a chart summarizing changes to the attribution and marking requirements [PDF]. More info on our 4.0 wiki.

Please note that this consultation period is abbreviated. We will be drawing the comment period to a close sometime the week of September 23rd. Please participate!

Category:Weblog

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#####EOF##### What's New in 4.0 - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work > Licensing considerations > What’s New in 4.0

What’s New in 4.0

Creative Commons worked for more than two years to develop the next generation of CC licenses — the version 4.0 CC license suite. The new licenses are more user-friendly and more internationally robust than ever before.

We made dozens of improvements to the licenses. Most will go unnoticed by many CC licensors and licensees, but some of them deserve particular attention.

For a much more in-depth rundown of the decisions reflected in 4.0, visit the 4.0 page on the Creative Commons wiki.

A more global license

In the past six years, Creative Commons has worked with hundreds of volunteers around the world – literally, some of the best minds in copyright law and open licensing on the planet – to translate and adapt the 3.0 and earlier licenses to local laws in over 60 jurisdictions (what we call “porting”). In the process, we’ve learned a lot about how our licenses work internationally and how they’re impacted by the nuances of copyright law in various jurisdictions.

We drew on this experience in the process of developing 4.0. We’ve worked closely with our wide international network of affiliates and countless other experts and stakeholders to make 4.0 the most internationally enforceable set of CC licenses to date. The 4.0 licenses are ready-to-use around the world, without porting.

The new licenses have improved terminology that’s better understood worldwide. With the release of 4.0, we’re also introducing official translations of the CC licenses, so that users of CC-licensed material around the world can read and understand the complete licenses in their local languages.

Rights outside the scope of copyright

Other rights beyond copyright can complicate the reuse of CC-licensed material. To the extent that those rights are not addressed directly in a copyright license, the situation for users of works can be even more confusing. Version 4.0 addresses this challenge through an open-ended but carefully tailored license grant that identifies categories of rights that could (if not licensed) interfere with reuse of the material. Accounting for these and other unenumerated rights will more fully enable users of CC-licensed works to use the work as they expect and as intended by licensors.

In particular, the fact that sui generis database rights are not explicitly covered by the 3.0 unported licenses has led to confusion in jurisdictions that recognize those rights. Version 4.0 removes any doubt, pulling applicable sui generis rights squarely within the scope of the license unless explicitly excluded by the licensor. It also allows database providers to use the CC licenses to explicitly license those rights.

The 4.0 license suite uniformly and explicitly waives moral rights held by the licensor where possible to the limited extent necessary to enable reuse of the content in the manner intended by the license. Publicity, privacy, and personality rights held by the licensor are expressly waived to the same limited extent. While many understand these rights to be waived when held by the licensor in 3.0 and earlier versions, version 4.0’s treatment makes the intended outcome clear.

Common-sense attribution

Version 4.0 includes a slight change to attribution requirements, designed to better reflect accepted practices. The licenses explicitly permit licensees to satisfy the attribution requirement with a link to a separate page for attribution information. This was already common practice on the internet and possible under earlier versions of the licenses, and Version 4.0 alleviates any uncertainty about its use.

Enabling more anonymity, when desired

Version 3.0 included a provision allowing a licensor to request that a licensee remove the attribution from an adaptation, if she did not want her name associated with it. Version 4.0 expands that provision to apply not only to adaptations but also to verbatim reproductions of a work. Licenses now account specifically for situations where licensors wish to disassociate themselves from uses of their works they object to, even if their work hasn’t been modified or published in a collection with other works.

30-day window to correct license violations

All CC licenses terminate when a licensee breaks their terms, but under 4.0, a licensee’s rights are reinstated automatically if she corrects a breach within 30 days of discovering it. The cure period in version 4.0 resembles similar provisions in some other public licenses and better reflects how licensors and licensees resolve compliance issues in practice. It also assures users that provided they act promptly, they can continue using the CC-licensed work without worry that they may have lost their rights permanently.

Increased readability

The 4.0 license suite is decidedly easier to read and understand than prior versions, not to mention much shorter and better organized. The simplified license structure and use of plain language whenever possible increases the likelihood that licensors and reusers will understand their rights and obligations. This improves enforceability of the licenses and reduces confusion and disagreement about how the licenses operate.

Clarity about adaptations

The BY and BY-NC 4.0 licenses are clearer about how adaptations are to be licensed, a source of confusion for some under the earlier versions of those licenses. These licenses now clarify that you can apply any license to your contributions you want so long as your license doesn’t prevent users of the remix from complying with the original license. While this is how 3.0 and earlier versions are understood, the 4.0 licenses make it abundantly clear and will help remixers in understanding their licensing obligations.

130 thoughts on “What’s New in 4.0”

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#####EOF##### Open Science - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Program areas > Open Science

Open Science

Laboratory Science
Laboratory Science—biomedical, by Bill Dickinson, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Open Science is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods. -FOSTER Open Science Definition 

For years, Creative Commons has been involved in with projects and policy to enable and support the open sharing of scientific information. The CC licenses and public domain tools are widely used to share scientific research and data. We’ve also created software and developed policy recommendations that make it easier for scholars and policymakers to advocate for open solutions to collaboration and information exchange.

Projects

Science Commons was launched in 2005 with the goal of bringing the openness and sharing that have made Creative Commons licenses a success in the arts and cultural fields to the world of science. Science Commons helped explore the intersection of the web, legal tools, and scholarly publishing for the benefit of scientific discovery, innovation, and collaboration. It has since been re-integrated with Creative Commons and is no longer a discrete project.

Creative Commons launched its Scholar’s Copyright Project in June 2006, with one of the main components being the Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine. This tool provides a simple mechanism for scholars to retain copyright over their published material that otherwise would be transferred to the publisher. It has now re-launched and updated in beta on CC Labs. The Termination of Transfer tool has also been released in beta. Once finalized, it will help authors learn if and when they have the right to terminate agreements under U.S. law, and regain their right their right to use CC tools to publish under open access terms.

Policy

The practice of open science is inextricably linked to the dissemination of that research to other scientists, and the public. Much of scientific research is funded by the public, thus there has been an increasing attention to ensuring that there is broad public access to the outputs (articles and data) of publicly funded science. Thus, advocates call for open licensing requirements to be attached to publicly funded research grants. This means that articles developed as a result of public funding must be shared under a liberal open license (such as CC BY) so that everyone else is granted permission to read and re-use that publicly funded research. Such policies are already in place in the UK, and are coming online at the European level, in the United States, and elsewhere.

Universities and philanthropic foundations are also adopting open licensing policies for the research articles and data sets that their faculty and grantees produce.

Resources

PLOSPLOS

PLOS (Public Library of Science) is a nonprofit scientific and medical publishing venture that provides scientists and physicians with high-quality, high-profile journals in which to publish their most important work.

mitMassachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries

MIT Libraries offers a local version of the Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine, created by Creative Commons as a means of simplifying the process of implementing an addendum to retain scholarly rights when publishing.

More Resources

#####EOF##### Open Education Week: 24-Hour Global CC Network Web-a-thon: 5-6 March - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Education / OER > Open Education Week: 24-Hour Global CC Network Web-a-thon: 5-6 March

Open Education Week: 24-Hour Global CC Network Web-a-thon: 5-6 March

Open Education Week is an annual convening of the global open education movement to share ideas, new open education projects, and to raise awareness about open education and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide.

Cable Green

February 28, 2019

Open Education Week 24 hour global web-a-thon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open Education Week is an annual convening of the global open education movement to share ideas, new open education projects, and to raise awareness about open education and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide. Each year, the Creative Commons global community participates, hosts webinars, gives local talks and shares CC licensed educational resources.

As part of the event this year, the Creative Commons Open Education Platform and CC Poland are hosting a 24-Hour Web-a-thon: 5-6 March (depending on your time zone).

We have amazing speakers from around the world presenting in multiple languages. Experts from Algeria, Nigeria, Argentina, South Africa, Italy, Chile, United Kingdom, Afghanistan, United States, Ireland, Sweden, Canada and Poland will present their open education projects.

Time: All times are UTC (check your local time using worldtimebuddy.com)

Webinar Room: All sessions will be in: https://www.uberconference.com/creativecommons

This year we hosted:
 – 28 Conferences
– 878 Minutes
– 222 Unique Participants

Day One – March 5

9:00-9:20 – Open Networked Learning – a collaborative open online course on open networked learning (Recording)
Presentation of the Open Networked Learning course – an initiative from Karolinska Institutet, Lund University, Linnaeus University and Karlstad University with Partner Universities and Organizations in Brazil, Finland, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa, and Switzerland. In particular, we will focus on the new course homepage powered by WordPress and BuddyPress. Jörg Pareigis, Karlstad University

9:30-9:50 –How the IT community in Slovakia creates open educational resources
Do you like the idea of creating open educational resources (OER) but don’t know how to get started? This presentation introduces the work of teachers and geeks who have either created their own open educational resources from scratch or built upon the work of others by adapting, remixing and translating. The goal is to provide inspiration, show practical examples of the various kinds of OER that these men and women produced and how their labor of love is helping make IT education more interesting. They pulled this off with little or no resources: perhaps you can join them, too? Jan Gondol

10:00-10:20 – Open Education Initiatives in Francophone North African countries (Recording)
In this presentation, we will share the state of Open Education initiatives in Francophone North African countries. Kamel Belhamel, University of Bejaia

10:30-10:50 – Open for Educators: Stirring Action via Support Services
Adoption of OER and OEP by educators (K-12 to HEI) strongly depend on support services available. This presentation considers various support services needed by educators to start to shift and implement OER and OEP using a case study of educators in Nigeria. John Okewole, Yaba College of Technology

11:00-11:20 – Open Education to build a Latin American community of information professionals. Fernando Lopez, Aprender 3C (Recording)

12:00-12:20 – Creating Educational Equity through OER and Open Degree Plans
This presentation will address OER and open degree as a means for reducing the high cost of earning a college degree, providing equity and access to higher education. Carolyn Stevenson, Purdue University Global

12:30-12:50 – Open is an Invitation: Exploring Use of OER with Ontario Post-Secondary Educators
In this short presentation, with lots of time for conversation, I will share the key findings of my doctoral research conducted in partnership with Ontario post-secondary educators in 2018. Jenni Hayman, Cambrian College

13:00-13:20 – Exploring the multiliteracies to support access to OER in South Africa
This presentation explores the specific multiliteracies required within a South African context in order to support epistemological and demiurgic access to OER. This research took the form of a conceptual study with an integrative literature review and document analysis of selected open educational resources and repositories. A broad framework of multiliteracies is presented for use within the Southern African context. Jako Olivier, North-West University

14:00-14:20 – Design process for an open educational resource: a case study (Recording)
In this presentation we described an experience of creation of an open educational resource following an interactive design methodology, working with design students. The work was carried out within the framework of a university seminar, aimed at introducing students of audiovisual design in technical, legal and design issues and their articulation with pedagogical objectives in an interactive design process. The tasks carried out included the creation of a “user” profile of the target students, analysis of the use situation and the needs of the teachers. The process concluded with the creation of an OER prototype for use in secondary schools. Lila Pagola, Universidad Nacional de Villa María

14:30-14:50 – Open Education Cooperative Educoop (Recording)
Presentation of the method of co-creation of open educational resources by teachers based on 4 values: cooperation, learning, openness and adventure. I will also show the effects of the first edition of the project. Aleksandra Czetwertyńska, Centrum Cyfrowe

15:00-15:20 – OEGlobal19 call for proposals – tracks and ideas (Recording)
We are going to briefly present the main topic of next OE Global 19, the main tracks in the call for proposal and give our support to colleagues who might want to ask questions about how to submit their proposals, according to the different formats available this year. Susan Huggins, OE Consortium. Chrissi Nerantzi, University of Birmingham. Paola Corti, Politecnico di Milano.

15:30-15:50 – Open Education in Chile: small steps in an adverse context
Nosotros hablaremos sobre los pequeños pasos y complejos contextos en el donde la educación abierta en Chile, a transitado en los últimos años, con algunas experiencias interesantes y relevantes, ademas del esfuerzo en compromisos concretos a través de los Planes de Acción de Gobierno Abierto. En nuestra opinión, los desafíos presentes y futuros para la educación abierta en el país son enormes, existiendo proyectos e iniciativas importantes, las que esperamos puedan representar nuevos escenarios favorables de mayor equidad y calidad educativa para los estudiantes. Werner Westermann, Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional

16:30-16:50 – OER news from the UK and OER19 (Recording)
We will share news of developments of OER in the UK and the OER19 Conference, taking place in Ireland in April – we will share how you can participate remotely and highlight important new resources and research. Maren Deepwell, Association for Learning Technology

17:00-17:20 – OpenEd in Oklahoma (Recording)
The purpose of this presentation will be to share the state of Open at Oklahoma State University where we have been, where we are going, and why. Cristina Colquhoun, Clarke Iakovakis, & Kathy Essiller, Oklahoma State University

17:30-17:50 – One adult student’s perspective on open education opportunities (Recording)
Older than most teachers and administrators, I’m the first online student at Metropolitan State University’s College of Individualized Studies authorized to use my own eportfolio to demonstrate my prior learning for assessment to complete a bachelor’s degree. An EdTech intern, I study open learning technologies and heutagogy. (self-directed learning) Mark Corbett Wilson, Metropolitan State University

18:00-18:20 – A Quick Look at the Future of OER (Recording)
This talk will look at the impact of new technologies – specifically, open data, cloud technologies, AI and distributed ledgers (blockchain) – on the future shape of OER – what they will look like, how they will be used, and what skills and knowledge will be needed to develop and use the. Stephen Downes, National Research Council Canada

18:30-18:50 -Going beyond the classroom: Digital Humanities OER powered by the European research infrastructure DARIAH (Recording)
This talk will showcase different approaches to bridge the flow of knowledge in Digital Humanities across different cultures and connect researchers with the tools and services provided by research infrastructures that are increasingly important ecosystems to conduct top-level research. We share experiences from the development of two resources developed in a research infrastructure context: the Parthenos Training Suite and the OpenMethods metablog. Both resources allow for flexibility with different teaching/learning contexts, enable peer learning, and empower teachers and students to look beyond their institutional perspectives. Erzsébet Tóth-Czifra, DARIAH-EU

19:00-19:20 – OER Momentum in the Rocky Mountains: Policy, Practice and Purpose (Recording)
Colorado’s unique leadership with statewide OER efforts is steered by the OER Council, a legislatively created advisory group comprised of representatives from a variety of disciplines and institutional types. This session will highlight how a diverse group of individuals in the Rocky Mountain state have advocated and executed OER efforts at the state level, while also highlighting future ambitions in policy, practice and purpose. Meg Brown-Sica, Colorado State University. Brittany Dudek, Colorado Community College Online. Spencer Ellis, Colorado Department of Higher Education. Jonathan Poritz, Colorado State University-Pueblo.

19:30-19:50 – State of Open Data: Data and Education (Recording)
This talk will showcase the findings of the chapter about data in education on the book State of Open Data. It aims at presenting the benefits of the use of open data in education, and its value for developing data literacies, but also, it highlights the risks of datafication of education with the aim of giving a wide landspace and perspectives on data in education. Javiera Atenas, ILDA

20:00-20:20 – An OER Library in Afghanistan
OER in Afghanistan? Yes, it’s true! For several years, we have been making and translating OER into Afghan languages, as part of the Darakht-e Danesh (‘knowledge tree’ library). We will tell you about our small but fierce digital library, we will share our lessons learned doing OER in this part of the world, and we will tell you about how we innovate around challenges like insecurity, connectivity and digital literacy. We’ll highlight some of our exciting future plans, and hopefully, leave you inspired. Lauryn Oates, Abdul Parwani, Darakht-e Danesh Library

20:30-20:50 – New open education initiatives in Ireland
Ireland’s ‘National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education’ is a unique body, tasked with supporting & fostering T+L enhancement & collaboration across all HEI’s in Ireland. Terry & Catherine will describe national plans in the area of open education – and are open to ideas & feedback. Terry Maguire & Catherine Cronin, National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education

21:00-21:20 РAlquim̩tricos, Open source DIY didactic building blocks
Near past, present and what’s next on building our open tech, didactic content, and branding model. Alquimétricos is a collaborative open project on designing, content developing and DIY (handcraft or digital) fabricating of tech-oriented didactic materials. A word on sustainability on open tangible stuff. Fernando Daguanno, Alquimétricos

21:30-21:50 – OER19 Conference – themes & conversations (Recording)
Following on from earlier presentation by Maren Deepwell & Martin Hawksey, Catherine (and an OER19 guest, TBC) will explore themes of the upcoming OER19 Conference taking place in Galway, Ireland, April 10-11. The overall conference theme is: ‘Recentering Open: Critical and Global Perspectives’. Catherine Cronin, National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education

22:00-22:20 – State of Open Education in Canada
We will share the projects and initiatives happening in Canada around open education. Specifically looking at Provincial initiatives in postsecondary education as well as policies in Open Education in Canada. We will also highlight what is next for Canada, and what we hope to see for the future of Open Education. Amanda Coolidge, BCcampus. Lena Patterson, eCampusOntario.

22:30-22:50 – Creative Commons Certificates (Recording)
The 10-week CC Certificates course for educators and librarians provides an in-depth study of CC licenses and develops participants’ open licensing proficiency and understanding of the broader context for open advocacy in the Commons. Will also discuss: new CC Certificates in process, facilitator training, translations, and scholarships. Cable Green, Creative Commons

23:00-23:20 – Panorama Educación Abierta en la Argentina: investigación, incidencia y desafíos (Recording)
Area es la Red Argentina de Educación Abierta. Fundada hace aproximadamente dos años, Area trabaja la Educación Abierta desde un concepto de apertura que apunta a la producción de recursos educativos abiertos desde la problematización de los conceptos de datos abiertos, acceso abierto, investigación abierta, etc. Desde ese lugar de cruce abre conversaciones sobre la democratización del conocimiento como otras áreas o disciplinas como, por ejemplo, las Humanidades Digitales, o instancias de incidencia, como las relacionadas con Gobierno Abierto. Esta presentación constituye un resumen de las áreas de acción y las propuestas de la red en el país y la región. Gimena del Rio Riande, Martín Szyszlican, Virginia Brussa, Red Educación Abierta Argentina (Spanish)

DAY TWO – MARCH 6

7:00-7:20 – Equity-oriented Open Learning in the Marginal Syllabus (Recording)
A presentation about equity-oriented open learning as supported by the Marginal Syllabus project. The presentation will review design and learning practices summarized in Kalir (2018). Additional information about open learning via the Marginal Syllabus project. Remi Kalir, University of Colorado Denver

10:00-10:20 – Online roundtable on Growing Open Education Policies in 2019 (Recording)
This session is an opportunity for all activist to join and briefly present their organisations and plans for 2019. Host of this session is Centrum Cyfrowe Foundation from Poland – we will present some details about Open Education Policy Forum 2019. Alek Tarkowski, Centrum Cyfrowe Foundation

Be sure to share your Open Education Week activities with: #OEWeek

See you online!

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#####EOF##### Copyright Experts Discuss CC License Version 4.0 at the Global Summit - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > Copyright Experts Discuss CC License Version 4.0 at the Global Summit

Copyright Experts Discuss CC License Version 4.0 at the Global Summit

Diane Peters

November 3, 2011


CC General Counsel Diane Peters addressing affiliates / DTKindler Photo / CC BY

The Creative Commons 2011 Global Summit was a remarkable success, bringing together CC affiliates, board, staff, alumni, friends and stakeholders from around the world. Among the ~300 attendees was an impressive array of legal experts. Collectively, these experts brought diversity and depth of legal expertise and experience to every facet of the Summit, including knowledge of copyright policy across the government, education, science, culture, and foundation sectors. We designed the Summit’s legal sessions (pdf) to leverage this expertise to discuss our core license suite and the 4.0 license versioning process.

The 3.0 License Suite

The current 3.0 license suite has been in service since 2007, and is faring extraordinarily well for many important adopters. Notably, government adoption and promotion of the licenses for releasing public sector information, content and data has increased in the intervening four years, predominantly leveraging the 3.0 licenses. From the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing Framework, to the explicit acceptance of CC BY by the Australian government as the default license for Australian government materials, to the official websites of heads of state, to numerous open data portals, governments are increasingly looking to and depending on CC licenses as the preferred mechanism for sharing information.

As robust as the 3.0 continues (and will continue) to prove for many adopters, we also have learned that limitations exist for other would-be adopters that inhibit use of our licenses. These limitations set the stage in some instances for the creation of custom licenses that are at best confusing to users and at worst incompatible with some of CC’s licenses. One of the more compelling limitations driving the need for versioning now is the existence of sui generis database rights throughout the European Union, and the treatment of those rights in CC’s 3.0 licenses. But other limitations also exist for important categories of those would-be adopters. For example, although 55+ jurisdictions have ported some version of the CC licenses to their jurisdictions, there remain many others that want to leverage CC licenses but are without necessary resources to undertake the time-intensive process porting demands, and do not wish to use the international (unported) suite however suitable those licenses are for adoption worldwide.

So as well as our 3.0 licenses operate for many, we recognize as license stewards there exists room to improve if we are to avoid risking a fragmentation of the commons. Of course it bears emphasizes here and throughout the versioning process that 3.0 license adopters can continue to count on our stewardship and support for that suite, just as we have done with all prior versioning efforts. We are committed to remaining alert to revisions that might undermine or compromise pre-4.0 license implementations and frameworks, and will now more than ever look to the expertise and dedication of our affiliates to assist us with the process and the subsequent adoption efforts.

Beginning the 4.0 Process


Michael Carroll / Kalexanderson / CC BY

Against this backdrop, Professor Mike Carroll, CC board member and founder, led a discussion around CC’s plans for beginning the versioning of its licenses from the current 3.0 version to 4.0. His remarks provided a detailed explanation of the reasons leading CC to version in 2012, given the limitations for several adopters in the existing suite, the many opportunities at hand, and the current environment of accelerating adoption by governments and others.

CC’s goals and those of our affiliate community for 4.0 are ambitious, and include:

  • Internationalization — position our licenses to ensure they are well received, readily understood, and easily adopted worldwide;
  • Interoperability — maximize interoperability between CC licenses and other licenses to reduce friction within the commons, promote standards and stem license proliferation;
  • Long-lasting — anticipate new and changing adoption opportunities and legal challenges, allowing the new suite of licenses to endure for the foreseeable future; and
  • Data/PSI/Science/Education — recognize and address impediments to adoption of CC by governments as well as other important, publicly-minded institutions in these and other critical arenas.
  • Supporting Existing Adoption Models and Frameworks — remain mindful of and accommodate the needs of our existing community of adopters leveraging pre-4.0 licenses, including governments but also other important constituencies.

These goals for 4.0 are not arbitrary — rather, we have recognized them as important levers for the CC license suite to support achieving CC’s mission and vision.

Addressing Restrictions Beyond Copyright – sui generis database rights and more

By design, CC licenses are intended to operate as copyright licenses, granting conditional permission to reuse licensed content in ways that would otherwise violate copyright. Once applied, wherever copyright exists to restrict reuse, the CC license conditions are triggered, but not otherwise. Yet what about that category of rights that exist close to, or perhaps even overlap with, copyright, making it difficult to exercise rights granted under CC licenses without additional permissions? This question drew the focus of Summit attendees across several of the legal sessions, particularly in the context of sui generis database rights that exist in the European Union and a few other places as a result of free trade and other agreements. Participants evaluated the practical problems associated with continuing CC’s existing policy of waiving CC license conditions (BY, NC, SA and ND, as applicable) in the 3.0 EU ported licenses where only sui generis database rights are implicated. Among others, Judge Jay Yoon of CC Korea provided a practical perspective on the challenges associated with CC’s current policy.

DATABASE at Postmasters, March 2009
DATABASE at Postmasters, March 2009 by Michael Mandiberg / CC BY-SA

Sui generis database rights are widely criticized as bad policy, and are unproven in practice to deliver the economic benefits originally promised. While these views were shared by the vast majority of affiliates attending the Summit, many also agreed that a reconsideration of CC’s current policy is appropriate, and that we should shift to licensing those rights in 4.0 on the same terms and conditions as copyright. This change in policy would be pursued in the greater interest of facilitating reuse, meeting the expectations of licensors and users, and growing the commons.

As foreshadowed earlier this year, and now with support from CC’s affiliate network, CC intends to pursue this course in 4.0, absent as-of-yet-unidentified, unacceptable consequences. Importantly, we will take great care to ensure that by licensing these rights where they exist we do not create new or additional obligations where such rights do not exist.

As the steward of our licenses and one of several stewards of the greater commons (including the Free Software Foundation and the Open Knowledge Foundation), we remain mindful and take with utmost seriousness the risks associated with shifting course. We fully intend to (and expect to be held accountable for) strengthening our messaging to policymakers about the dangers of maintaining and expanding these rights within the EU and beyond, and of creating new related rights. We also plan to develop ample education for users to help avoid over-compliance with license conditions in cases where they do not apply.

Further Internationalization of the CC Licenses

Until version 3.0, the CC licenses had been drafted against U.S. copyright law and referred to as the “generic” licenses. At version 3.0, that changed as we made our first attempt to draft a license suite utilizing the language of major international copyright treaties and conventions. While a vast improvement over pre-3.0 versions, there remains ample opportunity to improve to reach those who cannot or would prefer not to port. Thus, one of our major objectives with the process will be to engage with CC’s knowledgeable affiliates around the globe with the intention of crafting a license suite that is another step further removed from its U.S. origins, and more reflective of CC’s status as an international organization with a global community and following. This focal point will impact the versioning process in several respects, and will require the engagement and focus of our affiliate network, other legal experts and the broader community. But it will also impact our work post publication, where the legal expertise of our affiliates will become still more relevant to adoption efforts and implementations.

As part of this discussion at the Summit, Paul Keller of CC Netherlands and Kennisland led a robust conversation on the wisdom of the CC license porting process, and Massimo Travostino of CC Italy and the NEXA Center gave a presentation on the legal and drafting issues involved with creating global licenses.

Defining Noncommercial; License Enforceability


The legal program also included a presentation by Mike Linksvayer on the definition and future of noncommercial and an update from Andres Guadamuz on CC license enforceability. While a decision about retaining or modifying the definition of NC in 4.0, and branding thereof, remains open, any change has a high barrier to demonstrate it would be a net benefit to the commons, given the broad use and acceptance of CC licenses containing the NC term. And CC’s licenses in court continue their strong enforceability record, most recently with a favorable decision in September 2011 that enforced BY-SA in Germany. We plan to take caution when drafting 4.0 to avoid making changes that could compromise this record.

Next steps in the versioning process will be announced shortly to this blog and the CC license discuss list. Subscribe to stay apprised of future announcements about the 4.0 process and how you can contribute.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the license discussions and helped make the Summit a success!

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#####EOF##### How to give attribution - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Use & remix > How to give attribution

How to give attribution

Here is a photo. Following it are some examples of how people might attribute it.

This is an ideal attribution

“Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Because:

How you attribute authors of the CC works will depend on whether you modify the content, if you create a derivative, if there are multiple sources, etc. Find out more about attribution on the CC Wiki.

#####EOF##### Marking your work with a CC license - Creative Commons

Marking your work with a CC license

From Creative Commons
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You have chosen a CC license for your work. Now how do you go about letting the world know? Here are some examples of how to mark your work with the CC license. Note: If you want to know how to attribute other creators' CC licensed materials, go here.

How to use the CC License Chooser

You can easily add a CC license notice to your website by visiting the CC license chooser. At the chooser, simply answer a few questions, fill in the fields you need, and receive an already formatted HTML code.

CC license chooser v2.png

At this point, all you have to do is:

1. Copy and paste the HTML code into your webpage or website.

The specifics of inserting the code depend on how you edit your website. The block of code should be inserted into the page HTML - most desktop website tools like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or GoLive offer a "code view" that lets you see the code that makes up your page. Near the end of the page before you see </body></html>, paste the HTML code in directly.
If all of the resources you are publishing on a single website are licensed under the same CC license, it makes sense to paste the HTML code into your website’s template (e.g., in a footer or sidebar area). After saving the template, the chosen license information should appear everywhere on your site. Whether you add license information to a single page or an entire site, once live on the Internet, the license information will be displayed and the machines will be able to detect the license status automatically.

2. Edit the descriptive text to suit your needs.

For example, if you select CC BY in the chooser, the default text you receive in the second line of html code is:
This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.
The bolded text is descriptive, and you can edit it without affecting the code. For example, you might specify what 'work' you're talking about, or let users know that the entire site is available under the license unless noted otherwise. You could edit the bolded part as follows:
Except where otherwise noted, this website is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Example: Website

Cc.org cc by license.jpg

This is the CC license notice at the bottom of this website. The CC BY license notice shows up on every page of creativecommons.org. This is a good example because:

Author? - Since the license is for the CC website as a whole, which includes multiple authors, one attribution party is not specified. Instead, it is clarified in the Terms of Use (linked in the footer on the left) who owns what content.
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) and linked.
Machine-readability? - Yup. Copied and pasted code from the license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Also, we make it clear that we will let you know when material is governed by terms different from the CC BY license.

Example: Blog

Parker's blog

If you visit Parker's blog, you will see this notice. Parker filled out a few fields in the CC license chooser, which spit out an html code. He copied and pasted the html code into his website, editing the descriptive text to his needs. This is a really good example because:

Author? - Parker specified that he is the author of the work.
License? - Parker named and linked to the specific CC license (Creative Commons Attribution).
Machine-readability? - Yup. Copied and pasted code from the license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Yup. Parker indicated that the site was "parker higgins dot net."

Example: Offline document

For documents that are meant to be shared offline, use a title and/or copyright page to include the copyright notice and CC license information. You can obtain suggested text using the license chooser.

Help others attribute you.jpg

In the 'Help others attribute you!' box, select 'Offline' in the drop-down menu for 'License mark'. Instead of html, you will receive the following text which you can edit as needed: "This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/." You can also download the corresponding CC license icon at our downloads page.

Example

Col cc notice.jpg

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) added this CC license notice to their copyright page in the report entitled, Survey on Governments’ Open Educational Resources (OER) Policies. This is a good example because:

Author? - "by The Commonwealth of Learning"
License? - The notice clearly specifies the CC BY-SA license along with a link.
Machine-readability? - No, it's an offline document.
Other good stuff? - COL added a (c) copyright notice and a title for the work. COL also added a license icon to make it visually appealing and recognizable. (All CC license icons can be downloaded for free here.)

If you link to the document on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

If you want to get technical and attempt embedding metadata within documents, see the CC-OpenOfficeOrg Addin for OpenOffice or the Microsoft Office add-ins for Microsoft Office 2003/XP, Office 2007/2010/2013.

Example: Image

8256206923 c77e85319e n.jpg
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol can be reused under the CC BY license

This photo was taken during CC's 10th birthday party in San Francisco by CC staff member tvol. This is a good example because:

Author? - "tvol" and linked to his Flickr profile page
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) and linked.
Machine-readability? - No, but it could be if we copied and pasted code from the CC license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Title is noted and linked to Flickr page where original image resides.

It is also easy to publish your image on an image sharing platform that has built-in CC licensing, such as Flickr, 500px, or Wikimedia Commons.

Note: We don't recommend adding a watermark or visual marker directly on an image, as it can detract from the original and prevent the reuse you want to allow with the CC license. Instead, make sure that the license information is clearly visible underneath (or otherwise next to) the image.

Example: Presentation

CC presentation example.jpg

This slide appears at the end of Jane Park's presentation called "Using the CC BY license, Workshop for 2013 OPEN Kick-off" at Slideshare. This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly specifies that Creative Commons is the party that should be credited, along with a request to link to creativecommons.org.
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) with a link provided.
Machine-readability? - Yes, because it was uploaded to Slideshare, a slide-sharing platform that supports CC licensing.
Other good stuff? - Jane made use of one of the free CC_video_bumpers to iconically illustrate the CC BY license. She also makes it clear that she will let you know when material is governed by terms different from the CC BY license ('Except otherwise noted..' ).

If you link to or embed the presentation on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

Example: Video

By bw small.png

This is a CC video bumper, which you can add to your video if you have room for a 2-5 second copyright frame. Here are some pre-made CC_video_bumpers and some newly updated bumpers (as of Feb. 2019).

You can edit these bumpers or create your own still with more information. Just make sure that such a still contains all the information recommended below.

Once you've added a copyright notice within your video, we recommend uploading your video to one of these video-sharing platforms that have built-in CC licensing. These platforms take care of the machine-readability for you. You can also add author and license info to any "about" field at these sites. After you've uploaded the videos, you can share the video on your own website or blog using the platform's "embed" feature.

If you link to or embed the video on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below. For example, this blog post does a good job of displaying the CC license information about the video outside of its medium.

Video embed example.jpg

If you want to get technical, we have a document about marking materials so that they are machine-readable.

Example: Audio

CC podcast introduction by Cory Doctorow

This is a sample CC audio bumper which you can add at the beginning of an audio file to orally tell users of the CC license. Feel free to use intro bumpers developed by various Internet celebrities. You can also create your own, which can include more information as recommended below.

For audio, we recommend uploading your file to one of the music sharing platforms or communities that support CC licensing. These platforms take care of the machine-readability for you. You can also add author and license info to any "about" field at these sites.

If you link to the file on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

If you want to get technical, Use your favorite audio player to add in the information. See Embedded_Metadata. You can also add ID3 tags to a common audio file type, such as the MP3, or browse other file types.

Example: Dataset

Rufous woodpecker metadata.jpg

This is a CC license notice for a snippet of metadata that is part of the India Biodiversity Portal dataset. All the info is displayed once you click on the "i" to "Show details." This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly noted in the Contributors field as "Chitra Ravi, Content Editor, India Biodiversity Portal"
License? - The specific CC license is displayed via CC BY license icon and linked to the deed.
Machine-readability? - No, but they're working on that.
Other good stuff? - References used to create the summary/brief noted. License and author info easily found by clicking on "i" for more details.
Rufous woodpecker image marking.jpg

This is the CC license notice for the image to the right of the dataset which in this case is governed by different terms. This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly noted once you click on the "i" under Attributions - Flickr user "ric seet"
License? - CC BY-NC-ND, which is displayed in icon and icon is linked to the deed
Machine-readability? - No, but they're working on that.
Other good stuff? - Link included to original Flickr image and even date that image was accessed. License and author info easily found by clicking on "i" for more details.

Author, License, Machine-readability

A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym ALM, which stands for Author, License, Machine-readability.

Author - Who should the user attribute?

This means the person who owns the copyright to the material and is licensing it to the public, aka the 'licensor.' If you are the licensor, then name yourself! If you're only one of the licensors, then name the others, too. If you are licensing the material on behalf of another entity, such as an organization, then you would note that instead.

License - How can the material be used?

This one's easy--they can use it under the CC license! Make sure to name the specific CC license the material is under and link to it, eg. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License with a link to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses!
→ Also consider including the corresponding CC license icon, a visible indication of the license that is recognized as part of the CC brand around the world, eg. http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/80x15.png

Machine-readability - Can machines read it?

We live in the digital age, so this is very important. If you want search engines and software systems to be able to detect the CC license, then make sure to use our license chooser tool to get the machine-readable html code, which you can then easily paste into web pages. This code is simply a summary of the license in a format that machines can understand, hence the term "machine-readability". (Note: You can also upload your work to a content sharing platform that supports CC licensing and takes care of the machine-readability for you.)

Lastly, Is there anything else the user should know about the material?

Is your work a modification of another work? Does your work incorporate elements of several third party materials? Are you adding any warranties, or modifying the existing disclaimer in the CC license? Are you granting additional permissions beyond what the license allows? If your answer is yes to any of these, then you should note that along with the license information about your work. For example, if your work incorporates third party materials, you would note those materials and make sure to attribute each of them correctly. This is also your chance to grant additional permissions. For example, if you license something under CC BY but are okay with people not attributing you in certain cases--this is your chance to specify those cases. You can't change the terms of a CC license, but you can always grant additional permissions or warranties.

Content-sharing platforms

One way to increase visibility and access to your work is to share it with an existing community on a content-sharing platform. Many platforms support machine-automated CC licensing, making it easy for you to indicate the license along with other information, such as who to attribute. In addition, these platforms may offer the ability to filter or search content by CC license, which increases the chances that your work may be discovered. Search engines, such as Google or Yahoo!, also index CC-licensed works from these platforms.

Take a look at how to license your work on a few of these platforms, like Vimeo and Soundcloud, at Publish.

If your favorite platform does not enable CC licensing, the best thing to do is to add in the license information manually as you would on your own site. There is usually a description or other free form field where you can enter info about the work. You might also consider encouraging your platform or community to enable CC licensing. If the demand is great, they just might listen.

Adding a CC0 public domain notice to your work

If you have decided to dedicate your work to the public domain using CC0, you can use the CC0 waiver tool just like you use the CC license chooser. Simply fill in the fields at the form, go through the the necessary steps of reading and understanding what rights you are giving up with CC0, and receive the already formatted html code at the end, as show below.

Ml blog cc0.jpg File:Ml blog cc0 2.jpg

Then copy and paste the resulting html into your website as you normally would, following best practices outlined above for adding a CC license using the license chooser.

You can see how Mike did that here, and by visiting his blog: File:Ml blog cc0 3.jpg

You can also upload your work to a content-sharing platform that supports CC0.

If you want to mark specific media, see the different examples above. You would simply exchange the CC license text with the CC0 waiver text, shown in the example below.

Example: CC0

Casey image cc0.jpg

The text reads: "Copyright and related rights waived via CC0"

This blog post is a good example of marking an image with CC0 instead of a CC license because:

It tells you what the CC0 tool actually does and links to the CC0 deed so that users may understand further. It is also clear that CC0 is not a license, but a waiver.

Other issues

Adding a CC license to your derivative work

If the work you are licensing is a derivative of another work, then in addition to following best practices above, you need to let your potential users know a few things:

  • That your work is a derivative of another work
  • Attribution for the original work (see Best practices for attribution)
  • If there are any other rights (eg. third party content used under fair use or other exceptions) that they should be aware of

Remember that if your work is an adaptation of a work licensed under either CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA, then your derivative work must be made available under the same license as per the ShareAlike condition.

Note: When modifying materials under one of the Version 4.0 CC licenses, you must make a note of any modifications you make to the materials, regardless of whether the modification is significant enough to merit a derivative work. For examples, see Best practices for attribution.

Noting third-party content in your work

When you add a CC license to your work, you are only granting permissions to the rights you hold in the work. So if your work is a derivative of another creator's CC-licensed work, or otherwise incorporates third-party content under fair use or other exceptions, then you should make a note of that for your users. Your CC license only ever covers the rights you have in the content you create, and never other content by third parties.

If you are incorporating materials offered under other CC licenses, then see our best practices for attribution.

For more information, or for tips on how to mark content that is incorporated under fair use or other exceptions, see marking third-party content.

Don't call it a CC license if it isn't

When marking your work, remember that any restriction or modification to the original license cannot be labeled a 'Creative Commons’ license. See our Trademark policy.es: Marcando tu obra con una licencia CC

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license&oldid=116977"

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#####EOF##### Privacy Policy (pre 2009-07-23) - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Privacy Policy > Privacy Policy (pre 2009-07-23)

Privacy Policy (pre 2009-07-23)

This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains the collection, use, and disclosure of “personal information” by Creative Commons Corporation (“CC” or “Creative Commons”), a Massachusetts Corporation, with its principal place of business at 171 Second St, Suite 300, San Francisco, 94150, USA, through the websites that Creative Commons operates at https://creativecommons.net (the “ccNet Website”), http://creativecommons.org, and http://sciencecommons.org, (collectively, together with all sub-domains thereof, the “Websites”). Any “personal information” that Creative Commons collects via our ccMixter site (http://ccmixter.org) is handled in accordance with our ccMixter Privacy Policy (http://ccmixter.org/privacy). For avoidance of doubt, this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of the websites operated by international affiliates of Creative Commons.

This Privacy Policy also explains our commitment to you with respect to our use and disclosure of non personal browsing and site usage data that Creative Commons collects as the provider of the Websites and an OpenID service provider. That commitment is contained in a “Data Usage Policy,” below.

As used in this policy, “personal information” means information that would allow a party to identify you such as, for example, your name, address or location, telephone number or email address.

By accessing the Websites or using Creative Commons as your OpenID service provider, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Our Principles

Creative Commons is committed to handling responsibly the information and data we collect about you through our Websites, whether personal information or non personal browsing and site usage data. We have designed our Privacy Policy and our Data Usage Policy consistent with the following principles (the “Principles”):

  1. Privacy policies and data collection and use policies should be human readable, comprehensive, and easy to locate;
  2. Only the minimum amount of information reasonably necessary to provide you with services should be collected and maintained, and only for so long as reasonably needed;
  3. Information you provide through our Websites, or that we gather as a result of your use of our Websites or OpenID services, should not be used for marketing or advertising purposes, nor should it be provided voluntarily (without your permission) to anyone else unless required; and
  4. Unless restricted or prohibited by law, you should be notified when Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your personal information.

Personal Information CC Collects

We collect personal information at several places on the Websites, including without limitation:

  • in connection with your selection of one of our licenses, your selection of a Public Domain Dedication or your application for Founder’s Copyright;
  • when you provide us with your personal information such as by sending an email to us or signing up to receive a newsletter or our events listing;
  • when you subscribe to one of our email discussion lists or establish a Wiki account;
  • when you donate money to us or purchase merchandise; and
  • when you join the Creative Commons network through our ccNet Website, and when you thereafter create/edit your profile page, identify your content, share your story, and/or establish a Creative Commons OpenID.

What CC does with the Personal Information

License/Tool Selection. We use the personal information you provide to us as part of your selection of one of our licenses to provide you the RDF, html, and the Uniform Resource Locator that correspond to the license you selected. Your email address is expunged after this email has been successfully sent. If you choose a Public Domain Dedication, we use your personal information to provide you with the dedication information, and your email address and other information is expunged from our logs after this email has been successfully sent. If you apply for a Founder’s Copyright, we use and retain your personal information to provide you with the relevant agreement, to process your application and manage your Founder’s Copyright. We may use all of this information to maintain license usage data.

Emails and Newsletters. We use the personal information you provide to us when you send us emails or sign up to receive our newsletter or events listing in order to respond to your request — for example, to reply to your email or to send you communications about news and events related to Creative Commons.

When you subscribe to our newsletter, events list or one of our email discussion lists, your name and email address is sent to and stored by ibiblio.org (http://www.ibiblio.org/), a collaboration between the Center for the Public Domain (http://www.centerforthepublicdomain.org/) and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (http://www.unc.edu/). Personal information submitted as part of our email discussion lists is used for the purpose managing the discussion lists. Your name and email address will typically be visible to other list participants when you correspond on the list and to the general public in the discussion archives. All emails sent to the discussions list are publicly archived.

Donations. When you donate money to us or purchase merchandise via our support page, your personal information will be handled in one of two ways, depending on which option you choose.

  1. If you purchase a t-shirt or other merchandise from Creative Commons, we will use your personal information for the purpose of sending you the items you purchased.
  2. You may donate money to Creative Commons directly or through a variety of on-line payment sites, including PayPal, the Amazon Honor System, Just-Give.org, Good Search, Network for Good, and Mission Fish, among others. When you use any of those websites and services to donate to CC, your personal information is sent to, handled by and stored by those websites in accordance with their respective privacy policies and terms of use. You should read and understand the privacy policy and terms of use of any website you use to donate to Creative Commons. When you donate money to Creative Commons directly, we use your personal information to process your donation.

Regardless of the method by which you donate to Creative Commons or purchase a t-shirt or other merchandise, we additionally use the personal information you provide for the purpose of contacting you about upcoming news and events relevant to Creative Commons. When we contact you for the first time after your donation, we will use reasonable means to give you the option to choose not to be contacted in this manner again. When you donate money as part of one of CC’s fundraising campaigns, your name will be published on our “supporters page” unless you request otherwise.

ccNet Website. When you join our network you provide personal information to create your account and establish a password and profile, and to create an OpenID. We use that personal information to establish and maintain your accounts, provide you with the features we provide for account holders, to act as your OpenID service provider, and for the purpose of contacting you about upcoming news and events relevant to Creative Commons.

By joining the Creative Commons Network, you are also given a public profile page where you can post personal information for public viewing. The information that you submit on your public profile page, including but not limited to information you provide in the field “Your CC Story” and any photograph or image of yourself you upload, is posted by you at your discretion (although subject to CC’s Terms of Use). The information you publish on your public profile page, including your personal information, may be used by anyone who views that information for any lawful purpose, with the exception of the text you insert in the “Your CC Story” field and any photograph or image of yourself that you upload, which if you choose to provide in either case must be licensed under and becomes subject to the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, as stated on the Edit Profile page. CC may use the personal and non personal information you provide in your public profile, including the text in the “Your CC Story” field (subject to the terms of that license), to promote the mission of Creative Commons and the ccNet Website.

Any other personal information that we may collect which is not described specifically in this Privacy Policy will only be collected and used in accordance with the Principles.

Disclosures of Personal Information

In general, it is not Creative Commons’ practice to disclose personal information to third parties. We may share personal information in two instances:

  • First, Creative Commons may share personal information with our contractors and service providers in order to maintain, enhance, or add to the functionality of the Websites or the OpenID service.
  • Second, we may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; (c) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order; or (d) protect our rights, reputation, and property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public.

If Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your personal information (whether by subpoena or otherwise), then CC will use reasonable means to notify you promptly of that event, unless prohibited by law or CC is otherwise advised not to notify you on the advice of legal counsel.

Security of Personal Information Collected via the Websites; OpenID

Creative Commons has implemented reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to and unlawful interception or processing of personal information that Creative Commons stores and controls. However, no website can fully eliminate security risks. Third parties may circumvent our security measures to unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. We will post a reasonably prominent notice to the Websites if any such security breach occurs.

OpenID, including Creative Commons OpenID services, has security risks in addition to those described above. Among other things, OpenID is vulnerable to DNS attacks, and using OpenID may increase the risk of phishing. See About OpenID for more information about the types and levels of risks associated with OpenID.

Data Usage Policy: Non Personal Browsing and Site Usage Information

Our Data Usage Policy covers how we maintain and use information about you that is collected by our Websites and server logs, including when you log into a website using your Creative Commons OpenID.

Non Personal Information We Collect. When you use the Websites, our servers (which may be hosted by a third party service provider) may collect information indirectly and automatically (through, for example, the use of your “IP address”) about your activities while visiting the Websites and information about the browser you are using. In addition, whenever you use your Creative Commons OpenID to log into a website, our servers (which, again, may be hosted by a third party service provider) keep a log of the websites you visit and when you visit them.

No Linking. We do not intentionally link browsing information or information from our OpenID server logs to the personal information you submit to us. We use this information for internal purposes only, such as to help understand how the Websites are being used, to improve our Websites and the features we provide, and for systems administration purposes. CC may use a third party analytics provider to help us collect and analyze non personal information through operation of our Websites for those same purposes; however, we will never use a third party analytics provider to collect or analyze any information through our operations as an OpenID service provider.

No Selling or Sharing. Except in the unique situations identified in this Privacy Policy, Creative Commons does not sell or otherwise voluntarily provide the non personal information we collect about you or your website usage to third parties.

No Access. As an OpenID service provider, CC could technically access your web-based account tied to our OpenID service, and could log in on behalf of any of its OpenID users to any of the accounts they have accessed using their Creative Commons OpenID. Creative Commons will never use this technical login ability for any purpose unless otherwise required by law.

No Retention. CC discards non personal information from our OpenID server logs once we have used the information for the limited purposes noted above, under “No Linking.”

Notice. If Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your non personal information or to log in on behalf of an OpenID user (whether by subpoena or otherwise), then CC will use reasonable means to notify you promptly of that event, unless CC is prohibited by law from doing so or is otherwise advised not to notify you on the advice of legal counsel.

Any other non-personal information that we collect which is not described specifically in this Privacy Policy will only be collected and used in accordance with the Principles.

Reorganization or Spin-Offs

Creative Commons may transfer some or all of your personal and/or non personal information to a third party as a result of a reorganization, spin-off or similar transaction. Upon such transfer, the acquirer’s privacy policy will apply. In such event, Creative Commons will use reasonable efforts to notify you and to ensure that at the time of the transaction the acquirer’s privacy policy complies with the Principles.

Children

Consistent with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without requiring parental consent. Any person who provides their personal information to CC through the Websites represents that they are 13 years of age or older.

Third-Party Sites

The Websites may include links to other websites. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party sites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other websites.

Special Note to International Users

The Websites are hosted in the United States. If you are accessing the Websites from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use and disclosure that differ from United States laws, please note that you are transferring your personal data to the United States which does not have the same data protection laws as the EU and other regions. By providing your personal data you consent to:

  • the use of your personal data for the uses identified above in accordance with the Privacy Policy; and
  • the transfer of your personal data to the United States as indicated above.

Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will also revise the Effective Date below. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the Websites constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any updates.

Questions?

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at info@creativecommons.org.

Effective Date: October 15, 2008 (Prior Privacy Policy)

#####EOF##### CC REL - Creative Commons

CC REL

From Creative Commons
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Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) is a specification describing how license information may be described using RDF and how license information may be attached to works.

CC REL is described in CC REL: The Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (pdf), published March 3, 2008. An overview of the vocabulary is available with the namespace description.

CC REL metadata, as encoded using RDFa or XMP, may be embedded in a variety of filetypes. Additional confidence may be added to embedded metadata through the use of web statement.

We have also begun to explore extending CC REL for use by digital copyright registries. See CC Network Development's metadata documentation.

CC REL by Example provides examples of many web deployment scenarios with thorough explanations and is the best place to start if you want a HOWTO or to understand through examples which you can copy and experiment with.

Presentations

Examples

Simple

the study by VOLKAN TEMEL is licensed under a 

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">Creative Commons 
Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License</a>. 
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at 
<a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" rel="cc:morePermissions" 
href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/arp/">Hindawi</a>.

Advanced

<span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">

<span rel="dc:type" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" property="dc:title">My Book</span> by 
<a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://rejon.org/my_book">Jon Phillips</a> 

is licensed under a 

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">Creative Commons 
Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License</a>. 

<span rel="dc:source" href="http://deerfang.org/her_book"/>
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at 
<a rel="cc:morePermissions" 
href="http://somecompany.com/revenue_sharing_agreement">somecompany.com</a>.

</span>



CC REL
Have an idea about this page? Want to help build the CC ecosystem? Check out the challenges related to CC REL, or add one of your own below.
Open Challenges
{{#ask: Is Complete::no

Related To::CC REL|format=table}}
Completed Challenges
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Related To::CC REL|format=table}}
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#####EOF##### Global affiliates Archives - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Global affiliates

Global affiliates

Announcing the First Round of Grants for the Community Activities Fund

Last month we announced the Community Activities Fund as part of our ongoing efforts to support the activities of CC communities and beyond. Creative Commons is committed to building and fostering a vibrant global commons through the activities and projects they undertake. Our fund was created in response to direct community requests, and we could … Read More “Announcing the First Round of Grants for the Community Activities Fund”

Global affiliates

Hacia la Implementación del Tratado de Marrakech en Uruguay

El “Tratado de Marrakech para facilitar el acceso a obras publicadas a las personas ciegas, con discapacidad visual o con otras dificultades para acceder al texto impreso”, constituye un hito en la relación entre los derechos de autor y los DD.HH., siendo el primer tratado internacional consagrado con el objetivo exclusivo de proteger los derechos de acceso a la cultura y el conocimiento.

Global affiliates

Almanaque Azul: a Panamanian travel guide licensed under CC

Almanaque Azul is a group of Panamanian environmentalists, artists, and explorers that began the process of creating a travel guide for the beaches of the Republic of Panama in 2005 through a blog that chronicled the amazing cultural and natural diversity of various small towns and deserted beaches. Over the years, dozens of volunteers reported … Read More “Almanaque Azul: a Panamanian travel guide licensed under CC”

Global affiliates
#####EOF##### Contact - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Contact

Contact

Many questions are answered in our FAQ and you can find out more about our global affiliate network here. If you are unable to find your answer via our FAQ or website please be in touch regarding our website, general information or press at: info@creativecommons.org.

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Mailing Address and phone number

Please note: we are a distributed team working all over the world. We don’t have an office, but if you need to mail us correspondence, please send it to:

Creative Commons
PO Box 1866
Mountain View, CA 94042
USA

Or if you would like to mail us a donation, please send it to this address instead:

Creative Commons Corporation
P. O. Box 741107
Los Angeles, CA 90074-1107

Our phone number is:

+1415-429-6753

The best way to contact us is to write to info@creativecommons.org.

Reporting bugs and problems with a Creative Commons website, license, wiki or project webpage

You can write to us using the form above, or you can file an issue on GitHub.

 

Get Involved

There are numerous ways to connect with CC. Learn more

Copyright infringement notifications

If you have reason to believe that any material or activity on a site controlled or operated by Creative Commons (such as creativecommons.org or wiki.creativecommons.org is infringing of the right(s) owned by you or someone else, for whom you have authority to act, please follow our DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure.

Complaints about financial impropriety and other misconduct

As a nonprofit entity, the integrity of CC’s financial information is paramount. We have adopted Codes of Conduct that prohibit financial impropriety and protect whistle blowers who bring such irregularities to our attention. Additionally, we take seriously other misconduct that may involve the violation of our policies including, but not limited to, harassment.

If you are aware of any conduct prohibited by law or by our policies, you are encouraged to make a complaint, anonymously if you wish, to the members of the company’s Audit Committee. The email address for such complaints is audit@creativecommons.org which will forward your message automatically to the members of the Audit Committee. The Committee members are identified on our Board page. You may also submit a complaint by post or fax to the attention of “Audit Committee” at our Mountain View address.

Creative Commons is a Massachusetts-chartered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable corporation. For more information, see the corporate charter, by-laws, most recent tax return and most recent audited financial statement.

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons Public Domain Tools

Our Public Domain Tools

Creative Commons has updated its Master Terms of Service and Master Privacy Policy, effective November 7, 2017. Before continuing on our websites or using our services, please review.

Our licenses help authors keep and manage their copyright on terms they choose. Our public domain tools, on the other hand, enable authors and copyright owners who want to dedicate their works to the worldwide public domain to do so, and facilitate the labeling and discovery of works that are already free of known copyright restrictions.

CC0

Use this universal tool if you are a holder of copyright or database rights and you wish to waive all your interests, if any, in your work worldwide. This may be the case if you are reproducing an underlying work that is in the public domain and want to communicate that you claim no copyright in your digital copy where copyright law may grant protection.

Public Domain Mark

Use this tool if you have identified a work that is free of known copyright restrictions. Creative Commons does not recommend this tool for works that are restricted by copyright laws in one or more jurisdictions.

#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This page is available in the following languages: Languages
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Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

  • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

  • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
#####EOF##### World Bank stakes leadership position by announcing Open Access Policy and launching Open Knowledge Repository under Creative Commons - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > World Bank stakes leadership position by announcing Open Access Policy and launching Open Knowledge Repository under Creative Commons

World Bank stakes leadership position by announcing Open Access Policy and launching Open Knowledge Repository under Creative Commons

Diane Peters

April 10, 2012

The World Bank has announced a new Open Access Policy! Effective July 1, 2012, the Open Access Policy requires that all research outputs and knowledge products published by the Bank be licensed Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) as a default. Today, as the first phase of this policy is unfolded, the Bank launched a new Open Knowledge Repository with more than 2,000 books, articles, reports and research papers under CC BY. President of the World Bank Group, Robert B. Zoellick, said in the press release:

“Knowledge is power. Making our knowledge widely and readily available will empower others to come up with solutions to the world’s toughest problems. Our new Open Access policy is the natural evolution for a World Bank that is opening up more and more.”

CC BY is the most permissive Creative Commons license, allowing others to reuse, remix and redistribute works, even commercially, as long as attribution is given to the copyright holder. It is recommended for those seeking maximum dissemination and re-use of their materials while preserving copyright. We applaud the World Bank for its leadership and embracing this objective by incorporating CC as the framework for its Open Access Policy.

Lawrence Lessig, Board member and co-founder of Creative Commons, says,

“The World Bank is not only leading by embracing the principles of open access. But by making its works available under a CC BY license, it is encouraging the widest spread of the knowledge it is producing. This work is incredibly valuable in assuring access to knowledge universally, and not just at elite universities.”

The Open Access Policy reinforces scholarship norms. The terms require that publishing embargoes are respected and research is made available under CC BY. The Bank “expects the amount of time it takes for externally published Bank content to be included in its institutional repository to diminish over time” and that the working paper versions of journal articles will be made available under CC BY without any embargo period. Additionally, the CC BY policy only applies to works published by the Bank. Works published by third party publishers will be made available in the repository under CC BY-NC-ND, with the option of CC BY should the publisher choose.

All of this content will be aggregated via the Open Knowledge Repository, which has been built with an eye toward maximizing interoperability, discoverability, and reusability by complying with Dublin Core metadata standards and the Open Archives Initiatives protocol for metadata harvesting:

“The repository will be fully interoperable with other major international repositories such as RePEc (Research Papers in Economics), SSRN and Economists Online. This means that the World Bank publishes just once in its own Open Knowledge Repository while its research is also “harvested” and made openly available through many other searchable online repositories, increasing the number of people able to find World Bank content.”

Currently, the repository contains books and papers from 2009-2012 in various fields and from all around the world, including the World Development Report and two World Bank journals, the World Bank Economic Review (WBER) and the World Bank Research Observer (WBRO). The Bank will continue to add new and old content, including those works published prior to 2009, and beginning in 2012, the Bank will include links to research-related datasets.

To learn how this exciting new move builds on the Bank’s other open efforts, read the press release.

For more info on the Open Access Policy, read the policy. For more info on the Open Knowledge Repository, see the feature article and FAQ.

Category:Weblog
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12 thoughts on “World Bank stakes leadership position by announcing Open Access Policy and launching Open Knowledge Repository under Creative Commons”

  1. I have a feeling that while it will help re-distribution of new concepts, this could also create situation where people steal new research ideas from others.

  2. Well, it isn’t theft if the original author allows it, which is the case with CC. Merely changing the license will probably not have any effect on those who were willing to be dishonset in the first plave, anyway.

  3. I have a feeling that while it will help re-distribution of new concepts, this could also create situation where people steal new research ideas from others.

  4. Many people are obviously turned off as a gut reaction when they hear of something called The World Bank. Yet as an nonconforming idealist I am aware of how through the manipulation of information even so-called sinister organizations or ones that are collectively agreed upon to be untrustworthy have actually turned out to be like Quasimodo or Frankenstein: someone with good intentions who is socially classified as a “monster” or a similar label.

    In order to create a free world, we must be willing to cooperate with each other and not erroneously claim authority over ideas and objects as belonging to one person or group of people that thinks they are the only one that had the idea or got to it first, or the only one capable of developing such an idea. Once we let go of our false ideas of ourselves and what “success” means as a comparative model, once we develop faith in each other and grow to be supportive of each other within our interconnecting communities, we will realize that Creative Commons is a powerful solution to suppression of creative power all over the planet.

  6. Interesting that “Sam” and “Toshiyuki” have posted exactly the same comment. I suspect these comments are the work of an automated FUD bot, programmed by anti-CC parties. The comment is self-contradictory, and seems designed to spread the lie behind the nonsense phrase “intellectual property” – the lie that ideas can be owned, and therefore one can “steal” them. This lie is exposed by Richard Stallman of the Free Sofware Foundation in this essay:
    https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html

  7. Sharing of research products and information is a good thing. Like any knowledge it can be used for good or evil and generally over the course of history most of it gets used for mostly good purposes.

    I applaud this stance by the world bank. All publicly funded institutions in every country should be taking this step.

  9. This action by the World Bank is a major step toward digital age transparency in an organization that has log been criticized for its lack of openness. I applaud Mr. Zoellick’s action.

  10. Interesting that “Sam” and “Toshiyuki” have posted exactly the same comment. I suspect these comments are the work of an automated FUD bot, programmed by anti-CC parties. The comment is self-contradictory, and seems designed to spread the lie behind the nonsense phrase “intellectual property” – the lie that ideas can be owned, and therefore one can “steal” them. This lie is exposed by Richard Stallman of the Free Sofware Foundation in this essay:
    https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html

  11. This was one of the Great Initiative we have ever witnessed.
    As this initiative will encourage & empower to resolve toughest issues, due to its open access nature. These type of policies are very crucial at this stage!

  12. I have a feeling that while it will help re-distribution of new concepts too, Mr. Zoellick’s action is great!

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#####EOF##### 4.0/Sui generis database rights - Creative Commons

4.0/Sui generis database rights

From Creative Commons
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This page presented an issue for consideration in the CC license suite 4.0 versioning process. The discussions have now concluded with the publication of the 4.0 licenses, and the information on this page is now kept as an archive of previous discussions. The primary forum for issues relating to the 4.0 versioning process was the CC license discuss email list. You may subscribe to contribute to any continuing post-launch discussions, such as those surrounding compatibility and license translation. The wiki has been populated with links to relevant email threads from the mailing list where applicable, and other topics for discussion were raised in the 4.0/Sandbox. See the 4.0 page for more about the process.

Important:

  • This page was started alongside Draft 3, and its initial contents reflected the product of many incremental improvements to the license leading up to 4.0d3's publication. During the d2 discussion period, we undertook a complete review of the treatment of this subject. The refinements made previous to d3 are not specifically discussed below because the resulting changes to the license had already been made at the time this page was started.
  • Nothing contained in this page is legal advice; Creative Commons cannot and does not offer legal advice to license users. If you need such advice, we recommend that you contact an attorney in your jurisdiction. Because the topic of database rights and their interaction with the CC licenses is one that is complicated and challenging to explain, we have attempted to offer more detailed explanations of it in an effort to better communicate the new features in this version of the license suite to its potential adopters and users. However, application to any particular situation requires a deeper analysis particular to your own use case and jurisdiction. This page is not a substitute for the advice that can only be provided by your own attorney.

Draft 4

All of the provisions that are specific to sui generis database rights are consolidated into what is now Section 4 of the license. Many people recommended this change as a way to reduce confusion for people both within and outside jurisdictions where those rights are established. We have made some relatively minor language changes. Additionally, we have made one more substantive change, modifying the verbs that explain what permission is granted from “use and Share” to “extract, reuse, reproduce, and Share.” This tracks the language in the EU Database Directive, and includes language used in the main license grant. The change is intended to remove any potential ambiguity about what permissions are granted where these rights apply.

Overview

Version 4.0 of the CC license suite addresses sui generis database rights (SGDRs) in addition to copyright and the other copyright-like rights covered in earlier versions. Because SGDRs can impede a user's ability to share, reuse, and modify a work in the same way that copyright can, 4.0 makes it clear that these permissions apply to works that would otherwise be restricted by SGDRs as well.

SGDRs are protective rights granted in some countries to databases, including databases that would not ordinarily qualify for copyright protection. Normally, copyright extends only to creative works. A database that is just a compilation of factual information, without any particular creativity in the selection or arrangement of those facts, is not protected under copyright.

Jurisdictions with SGDRs extend exclusive rights to database makers (including makers of unoriginal databases not protected by copyright) and the result is similar to copyright: if you want to share, copy, or reuse a substantial amount of data from a database subject to SGDRs, you must get permission or a license from the holder of those rights. SGDRs are separate from any copyright in the actual contents of the database. (For example, a database of photographs may be subject to SGDRs held by the database maker, but the copyright in the actual pictures may be held by third parties.) SGDRs are most common in the European Union, where the EU Database Directive establishes them to protect to economic investments of those who make databases. But they also appear in several other countries, like Korea and Mexico.

In the 4.0 licenses, these rights are mentioned separately from other copyright-like rights, because the differences in the way databases are used and adapted and the nature of the protections offered under SGDRs make it necessary to clarify how the license grant applies to SGDRs. Treating them just as if the rights are the same as copyright is not an option CC feels is acceptable for our international, legally robust licenses.

When these rights apply

SGDRs apply (1) when the law of a jurisdiction that has adopted SGDRs applies to the creation of the database--usually, when the database was created by a person or entity in one of those jurisdictions--and (2) when you are using the database in a jurisdiction which recognizes those rights.

If either of those conditions is not present, your use of the database is not subject to SGDRs.

Databases not subject to SGDRs

If the database you are using is not subject to SGDRs, then the changes made in the 4.0 licenses to accommodate those rights has no effect for you, and the license will operate as it did for licensed databases in prior versions. This generally means that you are only restricted by any potential copyright in the database or its contents; if there is no copyright, you may make use of the database without restriction under the CC licenses.

How SGDRs interact with the CC license elements

Each CC license has different implications for what you can do with a database subject to SGDRs. All six licenses permit search, extraction, and reuse of the database contents, though sometimes only upon compliance with the specified conditions.

In order to determine whether you can make your desired use of a database subject to SGDRs (and if so, what conditions apply), you also need to figure out if your use actually creates Adapted Material, a term defined in the 4.0 licenses. Adapted Material is created when all or a substantial portion of the database contents is extracted and reused in a database that qualifies on its own for protection under SGDRs that you (the reuser) holds because SGDRs are granted to you by applicable law. Any other use of the licensed database is a use of the original material, does not produce Adapted Material.

Knowing when a use involves database rights, and the License Elements

When you are reproducing all or a substantial portion of the contents of a database subject to SGDRs, your use depends on the database rights that are granted to you. For example, if you access a CC-licensed database of donors to a particular cause, and you wish to combine that database with a list of donors to another cause and publish a consolidated list, then your use depends on the licensed SGDRs if the licensor holds those rights. Similarly, if you wish to extract and publish all of the names from the licensed database belonging to a large geographical region, your use involves republishing a substantial portion of the contents and also depends on SGDRs.

Not all uses of material from a database involve database rights. For example, simply taking one element from the data set and quoting it does not involve a substantial portion of the database, and does not require permission under SGDRs. (However, there may still be copyright considerations: for example, if you have a database of photographs, and you wish to use an individual photo, you do not have to be concerned with database rights, but copyright may come into play with respect to the individual photo.) Similarly, if you write a report summarizing the contents of the database without republishing the actual database elements, your use does not depend on database rights, as you have not reproduced the actual contents.

The below assumes that the CC-licensed database is restricted by SGDRs held by the licensor, and that you (the licensee) are restricted from using the database because the law applicable to your use provides those rights.

Attribution

Under the CC licenses, attribution has always been tied to public sharing of the licensed material. This is true in the context of databases with SGDRs as well: you must provide attribution when you are publicly sharing all or a substantial portion of the database contents. However, if you are using the database only in a private context, you are not required to provide attribution for that use.

NonCommercial

When a database is under one of the NC licenses, your extraction and reuse of its contents must be non-commercial in nature, even if your use would not implicate copyright and similar rights and thus not trigger other conditions in the license. Note that in many situations (but not all) mining a database will depend on SGDRs and therefore must be done for non-commercial purposes only, unless it falls within an exception or limitation to SGDRs. Additionally, if you create adapted material from a licensed database by extracting and reusing a substantial portion of its contents in a database that qualifies on its own for protection under SGDRs, you may use that other database for non-commercial purposes only.

NoDerivatives

When a database is under one of the ND licenses, you may not create adapted material from it--which is to say, you may not extract and reuse all or a substantial portion of its contents in another database that qualifies on its own for protection under SGDRs that you hold, even if you do not Share the resulting database. Other uses of the database do not create adapted material, and are permitted.

ShareAlike

When a database is under one of the SA licenses, if you create adapted material from it by extracting and reusing all or a substantial portion of its contents in a database that qualifies on its own for protection under SGDRs, you must use share alike your rights to that other database (but not the database contents). Other uses of the database do not create adapted material, and are not required to be shared alike.

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons Contributions Policy - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Donate > Creative Commons Contributions Policy

Creative Commons Contributions Policy

Creative Commons (“CC”) is an international, multi-stakeholder nonprofit organization. CC is diversely-funded by individuals, foundations, corporations, governments, and other institutions and agencies. CC accepts general operating support as well as program-specific funding for specific projects and initiatives. CC’s contributions policy is intended to encourage funding of CC while make clear that we will uphold the following principles and manifest them in all cash and in-kind funding agreements:

Funding Principles

  • All contributions will always and only ever be used to advance our vision, mission, and programs consistent with our obligations as a 501(c)(3) charity.
  • CC funders, sponsors, and donors will in no instance have control or decision-making authority around CC’s vision and mission, program implementation, or events such as the CC Global Summit. All CC funding discussions, agreements, and partnerships will reflect this principle without exception.
  • CC does not accept grants or contributions to lobby for specific legislation anywhere in the world, and will never promote a candidate for political office.
  • CC’s preference is for unrestricted contributions. The generosity and trust of an unrestricted contribution enables the organization to put the funds towards their best and highest use and to respond directly to unique challenges and opportunities as they arise and evolve. Nevertheless, CC does accept contributions for specific programs and purposes provided that such contributions are consistent with the CC’s mission, vision, priorities, and corporate charter and are not unreasonably restrictive.
  • In the unlikely event that funds are granted in support of a particular CC initiative that changes course significantly or is no longer pursued, funds will be allocated to a similar initiative consistent with the agreement under which the funds were received.
  • Contributions to CC at $10,000 and above will generally be publicly acknowledged on CC’s website unless specified as anonymous, in which case all information concerning the identity of donor or prospective donors will be kept strictly confidential by CC unless disclosure is required by law.

CC agreements, contracts, trusts, and other legal agreements will be reviewed, negotiated for compliance as needed, and approved by CC’s CEO, Director of Development, and legal counsel. Any contribution agreements that do not meet the principles of CC’s Contributions Policy will not be accepted.

#####EOF##### Press Room - Creative Commons
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Contact Email

For press related questions, please email us at info@creativecommons.org

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CC informational video by Jesse Dylan.   In the video, some of the leading thinkers behind Creative Commons describe how the organization is helping “save the world from failed sharing” through free tools that enable creators to easily make their work available to the public for legal sharing and remix. Dylan puts the Creative Commons system into action by punctuating the interview footage with dozens of photos that have been offered to the public for use under CC licenses. More information here.

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell 2.0 Generic — CC BY-NC 2.0
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Creative Commons Konzessionsurkunde

Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Dies ist eine allgemeinverständliche Zusammenfassung der Lizenz (die diese nicht ersetzt). Haftungsbeschränkung.

Sie dürfen:

  • Bearbeiten — das Material remixen, verändern und darauf aufbauen
  • Der Lizenzgeber kann diese Freiheiten nicht widerrufen solange Sie sich an die Lizenzbedingungen halten.

Unter folgenden Bedingungen:

  • Namensnennung — Sie müssen angemessene Urheber- und Rechteangaben machen, einen Link zur Lizenz beifügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden. Diese Angaben dürfen in jeder angemessenen Art und Weise gemacht werden, allerdings nicht so, dass der Eindruck entsteht, der Lizenzgeber unterstütze gerade Sie oder Ihre Nutzung besonders.

  • Nicht kommerziell — Sie dürfen das Material nicht für kommerzielle Zwecke nutzen.

  • Keine weiteren Einschränkungen — Sie dürfen keine zusätzlichen Klauseln oder technische Verfahren einsetzen, die anderen rechtlich irgendetwas untersagen, was die Lizenz erlaubt.

Hinweise:

  • Sie müssen sich nicht an diese Lizenz halten hinsichtlich solcher Teile des Materials, die gemeinfrei sind, oder soweit Ihre Nutzungshandlungen durch Ausnahmen und Schranken des Urheberrechts gedeckt sind.
  • Es werden keine Garantien gegeben und auch keine Gewähr geleistet. Die Lizenz verschafft Ihnen möglicherweise nicht alle Erlaubnisse, die Sie für die jeweilige Nutzung brauchen. Es können beispielsweise andere Rechte wie Persönlichkeits- und Datenschutzrechte zu beachten sein, die Ihre Nutzung des Materials entsprechend beschränken.

Eine neuere Version dieses Lizenzvertrages ist verfügbar. Für neue Werke sollte diese aktuelle Version benutzt werden. Zu erwägen wäre auch, alte Werke unter der aktuellen Version neu zu lizenzieren. Eine automatische Neulizenzierung findet jedoch nicht statt.

#####EOF##### Creative Commons Legal Code

Creative Commons Legal Code

Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Deutschland

CREATIVE COMMONS IST KEINE RECHTSANWALTSKANZLEI UND LEISTET KEINE RECHTSBERATUNG. DIE BEREITSTELLUNG DIESER LIZENZ FÜHRT ZU KEINEM MANDATSVERHÄLTNIS. CREATIVE COMMONS STELLT DIESE INFORMATIONEN OHNE GEWÄHR ZUR VERFÜGUNG. CREATIVE COMMONS ÜBERNIMMT KEINE GEWÄHRLEISTUNG FÜR DIE GELIEFERTEN INFORMATIONEN UND SCHLIEßT DIE HAFTUNG FÜR SCHÄDEN AUS, DIE SICH AUS DEREN GEBRAUCH ERGEBEN.

Lizenz

DER GEGENSTAND DIESER LIZENZ (WIE UNTER "SCHUTZGEGENSTAND" DEFINIERT) WIRD UNTER DEN BEDINGUNGEN DIESER CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL", "LIZENZ" ODER "LIZENZVERTRAG") ZUR VERFÜGUNG GESTELLT. DER SCHUTZGEGENSTAND IST DURCH DAS URHEBERRECHT UND/ODER ANDERE GESETZE GESCHÜTZT. JEDE FORM DER NUTZUNG DES SCHUTZGEGENSTANDES, DIE NICHT AUFGRUND DIESER LIZENZ ODER DURCH GESETZE GESTATTET IST, IST UNZULÄSSIG.

DURCH DIE AUSÜBUNG EINES DURCH DIESE LIZENZ GEWÄHRTEN RECHTS AN DEM SCHUTZGEGENSTAND ERKLÄREN SIE SICH MIT DEN LIZENZBEDINGUNGEN RECHTSVERBINDLICH EINVERSTANDEN. SOWEIT DIESE LIZENZ ALS LIZENZVERTRAG ANZUSEHEN IST, GEWÄHRT IHNEN DER LIZENZGEBER DIE IN DER LIZENZ GENANNTEN RECHTE UNENTGELTLICH UND IM AUSTAUSCH DAFÜR, DASS SIE DAS GEBUNDENSEIN AN DIE LIZENZBEDINGUNGEN AKZEPTIEREN.

1. Definitionen

  1. Der Begriff "Abwandlung" im Sinne dieser Lizenz bezeichnet das Ergebnis jeglicher Art von Veränderung des Schutzgegenstandes, solange die eigenpersönlichen Züge des Schutzgegenstandes darin nicht verblassen und daran eigene Schutzrechte entstehen. Das kann insbesondere eine Bearbeitung, Umgestaltung, Änderung, Anpassung, Übersetzung oder Heranziehung des Schutzgegenstandes zur Vertonung von Laufbildern sein. Nicht als Abwandlung des Schutzgegenstandes gelten seine Aufnahme in eine Sammlung oder ein Sammelwerk und die freie Benutzung des Schutzgegenstandes.
  2. Der Begriff "Sammelwerk" im Sinne dieser Lizenz meint eine Zusammenstellung von literarischen, künstlerischen oder wissenschaftlichen Inhalten, sofern diese Zusammenstellung aufgrund von Auswahl und Anordnung der darin enthaltenen selbständigen Elemente eine geistige Schöpfung darstellt, unabhängig davon, ob die Elemente systematisch oder methodisch angelegt und dadurch einzeln zugänglich sind oder nicht.
  3. "Verbreiten" im Sinne dieser Lizenz bedeutet, den Schutzgegenstand oder Abwandlungen im Original oder in Form von Vervielfältigungsstücken, mithin in körperlich fixierter Form der Öffentlichkeit anzubieten oder in Verkehr zu bringen.
  4. Unter "Lizenzelementen" werden im Sinne dieser Lizenz die folgenden übergeordneten Lizenzcharakteristika verstanden, die vom Lizenzgeber ausgewählt wurden und in der Bezeichnung der Lizenz zum Ausdruck kommen: "Namensnennung", "Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen".
  5. Der "Lizenzgeber" im Sinne dieser Lizenz ist diejenige natürliche oder juristische Person oder Gruppe, die den Schutzgegenstand unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz anbietet und insoweit als Rechteinhaberin auftritt.
  6. "Rechteinhaber" im Sinne dieser Lizenz ist der Urheber des Schutzgegenstandes oder jede andere natürliche oder juristische Person oder Gruppe von Personen, die am Schutzgegenstand ein Immaterialgüterrecht erlangt hat, welches die in Abschnitt 3 genannten Handlungen erfasst und bei dem eine Einräumung von Nutzungsrechten oder eine Weiterübertragung an Dritte möglich ist.
  7. Der Begriff "Schutzgegenstand" bezeichnet in dieser Lizenz den literarischen, künstlerischen oder wissenschaftlichen Inhalt, der unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz angeboten wird. Das kann insbesondere eine persönliche geistige Schöpfung jeglicher Art, ein Werk der kleinen Münze, ein nachgelassenes Werk oder auch ein Lichtbild oder anderes Objekt eines verwandten Schutzrechts sein, unabhängig von der Art seiner Fixierung und unabhängig davon, auf welche Weise jeweils eine Wahrnehmung erfolgen kann, gleichviel ob in analoger oder digitaler Form. Soweit Datenbanken oder Zusammenstellungen von Daten einen immaterialgüterrechtlichen Schutz eigener Art genießen, unterfallen auch sie dem Begriff "Schutzgegenstand" im Sinne dieser Lizenz.
  8. Mit "Sie" bzw. "Ihnen" ist die natürliche oder juristische Person gemeint, die in dieser Lizenz im Abschnitt 3 genannte Nutzungen des Schutzgegenstandes vornimmt und zuvor in Hinblick auf den Schutzgegenstand nicht gegen Bedingungen dieser Lizenz verstoßen oder aber die ausdrückliche Erlaubnis des Lizenzgebers erhalten hat, die durch diese Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte trotz eines vorherigen Verstoßes auszuüben.
  9. Unter "Öffentlich Zeigen" im Sinne dieser Lizenz sind Veröffentlichungen und Präsentationen des Schutzgegenstandes zu verstehen, die für eine Mehrzahl von Mitgliedern der Öffentlichkeit bestimmt sind und in unkörperlicher Form mittels öffentlicher Wiedergabe in Form von Vortrag, Aufführung, Vorführung, Darbietung, Sendung, Weitersendung, zeit- und ortsunabhängiger Zugänglichmachung oder in körperlicher Form mittels Ausstellung erfolgen, unabhängig von bestimmten Veranstaltungen und unabhängig von den zum Einsatz kommenden Techniken und Verfahren, einschließlich drahtgebundener oder drahtloser Mittel und Einstellen in das Internet.
  10. "Vervielfältigen" im Sinne dieser Lizenz bedeutet, mittels beliebiger Verfahren Vervielfältigungsstücke des Schutzgegenstandes herzustellen, insbesondere durch Ton- oder Bildaufzeichnungen, und umfasst auch den Vorgang, erstmals körperliche Fixierungen des Schutzgegenstandes sowie Vervielfältigungsstücke dieser Fixierungen anzufertigen, sowie die Übertragung des Schutzgegenstandes auf einen Bild- oder Tonträger oder auf ein anderes elektronisches Medium, gleichviel ob in digitaler oder analoger Form.

  11. "Mit Creative Commons kompatible Lizenz" bezeichnet eine Lizenz, die unter https://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses aufgelistet ist und die durch Creative Commons als grundsätzlich zur vorliegenden Lizenz äquivalent akzeptiert wurde, da zumindest folgende Voraussetzungen erfüllt sind:

    Diese mit Creative Commons kompatible Lizenz

    1. enthält Bestimmungen, welche die gleichen Ziele verfolgen, die gleiche Bedeutung haben und die gleichen Wirkungen erzeugen wie die Lizenzelemente der vorliegenden Lizenz; und
    2. erlaubt ausdrücklich das Lizenzieren von ihr unterstellten Abwandlungen unter vorliegender Lizenz, unter einer anderen rechtsordnungsspezifisch angepassten Creative-Commons-Lizenz mit denselben Lizenzelementen, wie sie die vorliegende Lizenz aufweist, oder unter der entsprechenden Creative-Commons-Unported-Lizenz.

2. Schranken des Immaterialgüterrechts

Diese Lizenz ist in keiner Weise darauf gerichtet, Befugnisse zur Nutzung des Schutzgegenstandes zu vermindern, zu beschränken oder zu vereiteln, die Ihnen aufgrund der Schranken des Urheberrechts oder anderer Rechtsnormen bereits ohne Weiteres zustehen oder sich aus dem Fehlen eines immaterialgüterrechtlichen Schutzes ergeben.

3. Einräumung von Nutzungsrechten

Unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz räumt Ihnen der Lizenzgeber - unbeschadet unverzichtbarer Rechte und vorbehaltlich des Abschnitts 3.e) - das vergütungsfreie, räumlich und zeitlich (für die Dauer des Schutzrechts am Schutzgegenstand) unbeschränkte einfache Recht ein, den Schutzgegenstand auf die folgenden Arten und Weisen zu nutzen ("unentgeltlich eingeräumtes einfaches Nutzungsrecht für jedermann"):

  1. Den Schutzgegenstand in beliebiger Form und Menge zu vervielfältigen, ihn in Sammelwerke zu integrieren und ihn als Teil solcher Sammelwerke zu vervielfältigen;
  2. Abwandlungen des Schutzgegenstandes anzufertigen, einschließlich Übersetzungen unter Nutzung jedweder Medien, sofern deutlich erkennbar gemacht wird, dass es sich um Abwandlungen handelt;
  3. den Schutzgegenstand, allein oder in Sammelwerke aufgenommen, öffentlich zu zeigen und zu verbreiten;
  4. Abwandlungen des Schutzgegenstandes zu veröffentlichen, öffentlich zu zeigen und zu verbreiten.

  5. Bezüglich Vergütung für die Nutzung des Schutzgegenstandes gilt Folgendes:

    1. Unverzichtbare gesetzliche Vergütungsansprüche: Soweit unverzichtbare Vergütungsansprüche im Gegenzug für gesetzliche Lizenzen vorgesehen oder Pauschalabgabensysteme (zum Beispiel für Leermedien) vorhanden sind, behält sich der Lizenzgeber das ausschließliche Recht vor, die entsprechende Vergütung einzuziehen für jede Ausübung eines Rechts aus dieser Lizenz durch Sie.
    2. Vergütung bei Zwangslizenzen: Sofern Zwangslizenzen außerhalb dieser Lizenz vorgesehen sind und zustande kommen, verzichtet der Lizenzgeber für alle Fälle einer lizenzgerechten Nutzung des Schutzgegenstandes durch Sie auf jegliche Vergütung.
    3. Vergütung in sonstigen Fällen: Bezüglich lizenzgerechter Nutzung des Schutzgegenstandes durch Sie, die nicht unter die beiden vorherigen Abschnitte (i) und (ii) fällt, verzichtet der Lizenzgeber auf jegliche Vergütung, unabhängig davon, ob eine Einziehung der Vergütung durch ihn selbst oder nur durch eine Verwertungsgesellschaft möglich wäre.

Das vorgenannte Nutzungsrecht wird für alle bekannten sowie für alle noch nicht bekannten Nutzungsarten eingeräumt. Es beinhaltet auch das Recht, solche Änderungen am Schutzgegenstand vorzunehmen, die für bestimmte nach dieser Lizenz zulässige Nutzungen technisch erforderlich sind. Alle sonstigen Rechte, die über diesen Abschnitt hinaus nicht ausdrücklich durch den Lizenzgeber eingeräumt werden, bleiben diesem allein vorbehalten. Soweit Datenbanken oder Zusammenstellungen von Daten Schutzgegenstand dieser Lizenz oder Teil dessen sind und einen immaterialgüterrechtlichen Schutz eigener Art genießen, verzichtet der Lizenzgeber auf sämtliche aus diesem Schutz resultierenden Rechte.

4. Bedingungen

Die Einräumung des Nutzungsrechts gemäß Abschnitt 3 dieser Lizenz erfolgt ausdrücklich nur unter den folgenden Bedingungen:

  1. Sie dürfen den Schutzgegenstand ausschließlich unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen. Sie müssen dabei stets eine Kopie dieser Lizenz oder deren vollständige Internetadresse in Form des Uniform-Resource-Identifier (URI) beifügen. Sie dürfen keine Vertrags- oder Nutzungsbedingungen anbieten oder fordern, die die Bedingungen dieser Lizenz oder die durch diese Lizenz gewährten Rechte beschränken. Sie dürfen den Schutzgegenstand nicht unterlizenzieren. Bei jeder Kopie des Schutzgegenstandes, die Sie verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, müssen Sie alle Hinweise unverändert lassen, die auf diese Lizenz und den Haftungsausschluss hinweisen. Wenn Sie den Schutzgegenstand verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, dürfen Sie (in Bezug auf den Schutzgegenstand) keine technischen Maßnahmen ergreifen, die den Nutzer des Schutzgegenstandes in der Ausübung der ihm durch diese Lizenz gewährten Rechte behindern können. Dieser Abschnitt 4.a) gilt auch für den Fall, dass der Schutzgegenstand einen Bestandteil eines Sammelwerkes bildet, was jedoch nicht bedeutet, dass das Sammelwerk insgesamt dieser Lizenz unterstellt werden muss. Sofern Sie ein Sammelwerk erstellen, müssen Sie auf die Mitteilung eines Lizenzgebers hin aus dem Sammelwerk die in Abschnitt 4.c) aufgezählten Hinweise entfernen. Wenn Sie eine Abwandlung vornehmen, müssen Sie auf die Mitteilung eines Lizenzgebers hin von der Abwandlung die in Abschnitt 4.c) aufgezählten Hinweise entfernen.

  2. Sie dürfen eine Abwandlung ausschließlich unter den Bedingungen

    1. dieser Lizenz,
    2. einer späteren Version dieser Lizenz mit denselben Lizenzelementen,
    3. einer rechtsordnungsspezifischen Creative-Commons-Lizenz mit denselben Lizenzelementen ab Version 3.0 aufwärts (z.B. Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 US),
    4. der Creative-Commons-Unported-Lizenz mit denselben Lizenzelementen ab Version 3.0 aufwärts, oder
    5. einer mit Creative Commons kompatiblen Lizenz

    verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen.

    Falls Sie die Abwandlung gemäß Abschnitt (v) unter einer mit Creative Commons kompatiblen Lizenz lizenzieren, müssen Sie deren Lizenzbestimmungen Folge leisten.

    Falls Sie die Abwandlungen unter einer der unter (i)-(iv) genannten Lizenzen ("Verwendbare Lizenzen") lizenzieren, müssen Sie deren Lizenzbestimmungen sowie folgenden Bestimmungen Folge leisten: Sie müssen stets eine Kopie der verwendbaren Lizenz oder deren vollständige Internetadresse in Form des Uniform-Resource-Identifier (URI) beifügen, wenn Sie die Abwandlung verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen. Sie dürfen keine Vertrags- oder Nutzungsbedingungen anbieten oder fordern, die die Bedingungen der verwendbaren Lizenz oder die durch sie gewährten Rechte beschränken. Bei jeder Abwandlung, die Sie verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, müssen Sie alle Hinweise auf die verwendbare Lizenz und den Haftungsausschluss unverändert lassen. Wenn Sie die Abwandlung verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, dürfen Sie (in Bezug auf die Abwandlung) keine technischen Maßnahmen ergreifen, die den Nutzer der Abwandlung in der Ausübung der ihm durch die verwendbare Lizenz gewährten Rechte behindern können. Dieser Abschnitt 4.b) gilt auch für den Fall, dass die Abwandlung einen Bestandteil eines Sammelwerkes bildet, was jedoch nicht bedeutet, dass das Sammelwerk insgesamt der verwendbaren Lizenz unterstellt werden muss.

  3. Die Verbreitung und das öffentliche Zeigen des Schutzgegenstandes oder auf ihm aufbauender Abwandlungen oder ihn enthaltender Sammelwerke ist Ihnen nur unter der Bedingung gestattet, dass Sie, vorbehaltlich etwaiger Mitteilungen im Sinne von Abschnitt 4.a), alle dazu gehörenden Rechtevermerke unberührt lassen. Sie sind verpflichtet, die Rechteinhaberschaft in einer der Nutzung entsprechenden, angemessenen Form anzuerkennen, indem Sie - soweit bekannt - Folgendes angeben:

    1. Den Namen (oder das Pseudonym, falls ein solches verwendet wird) des Rechteinhabers und / oder, falls der Lizenzgeber im Rechtevermerk, in den Nutzungsbedingungen oder auf andere angemessene Weise eine Zuschreibung an Dritte vorgenommen hat (z.B. an eine Stiftung, ein Verlagshaus oder eine Zeitung) ("Zuschreibungsempfänger"), Namen bzw. Bezeichnung dieses oder dieser Dritten;
    2. den Titel des Inhaltes;
    3. in einer praktikablen Form den Uniform-Resource-Identifier (URI, z.B. Internetadresse), den der Lizenzgeber zum Schutzgegenstand angegeben hat, es sei denn, dieser URI verweist nicht auf den Rechtevermerk oder die Lizenzinformationen zum Schutzgegenstand;
    4. und im Falle einer Abwandlung des Schutzgegenstandes in Übereinstimmung mit Abschnitt 3.b) einen Hinweis darauf, dass es sich um eine Abwandlung handelt.

    Die nach diesem Abschnitt 4.c) erforderlichen Angaben können in jeder angemessenen Form gemacht werden; im Falle einer Abwandlung des Schutzgegenstandes oder eines Sammelwerkes müssen diese Angaben das Minimum darstellen und bei gemeinsamer Nennung mehrerer Rechteinhaber dergestalt erfolgen, dass sie zumindest ebenso hervorgehoben sind wie die Hinweise auf die übrigen Rechteinhaber. Die Angaben nach diesem Abschnitt dürfen Sie ausschließlich zur Angabe der Rechteinhaberschaft in der oben bezeichneten Weise verwenden. Durch die Ausübung Ihrer Rechte aus dieser Lizenz dürfen Sie ohne eine vorherige, separat und schriftlich vorliegende Zustimmung des Lizenzgebers und / oder des Zuschreibungsempfängers weder explizit noch implizit irgendeine Verbindung zum Lizenzgeber oder Zuschreibungsempfänger und ebenso wenig eine Unterstützung oder Billigung durch ihn andeuten.

  4. Die oben unter 4.a) bis c) genannten Einschränkungen gelten nicht für solche Teile des Schutzgegenstandes, die allein deshalb unter den Schutzgegenstandsbegriff fallen, weil sie als Datenbanken oder Zusammenstellungen von Daten einen immaterialgüterrechtlichen Schutz eigener Art genießen.
  5. Persönlichkeitsrechte bleiben - soweit sie bestehen - von dieser Lizenz unberührt.

5. Gewährleistung

SOFERN KEINE ANDERS LAUTENDE, SCHRIFTLICHE VEREINBARUNG ZWISCHEN DEM LIZENZGEBER UND IHNEN GESCHLOSSEN WURDE UND SOWEIT MÄNGEL NICHT ARGLISTIG VERSCHWIEGEN WURDEN, BIETET DER LIZENZGEBER DEN SCHUTZGEGENSTAND UND DIE EINRÄUMUNG VON RECHTEN UNTER AUSSCHLUSS JEGLICHER GEWÄHRLEISTUNG AN UND ÜBERNIMMT WEDER AUSDRÜCKLICH NOCH KONKLUDENT GARANTIEN IRGENDEINER ART. DIES UMFASST INSBESONDERE DAS FREISEIN VON SACH- UND RECHTSMÄNGELN, UNABHÄNGIG VON DEREN ERKENNBARKEIT FÜR DEN LIZENZGEBER, DIE VERKEHRSFÄHIGKEIT DES SCHUTZGEGENSTANDES, SEINE VERWENDBARKEIT FÜR EINEN BESTIMMTEN ZWECK SOWIE DIE KORREKTHEIT VON BESCHREIBUNGEN. DIESE GEWÄHRLEISTUNGSBESCHRÄNKUNG GILT NICHT, SOWEIT MÄNGEL ZU SCHÄDEN DER IN ABSCHNITT 6 BEZEICHNETEN ART FÜHREN UND AUF SEITEN DES LIZENZGEBERS DAS JEWEILS GENANNTE VERSCHULDEN BZW. VERTRETENMÜSSEN EBENFALLS VORLIEGT.

6. Haftungsbeschränkung

DER LIZENZGEBER HAFTET IHNEN GEGENÜBER IN BEZUG AUF SCHÄDEN AUS DER VERLETZUNG DES LEBENS, DES KÖRPERS ODER DER GESUNDHEIT NUR, SOFERN IHM WENIGSTENS FAHRLÄSSIGKEIT VORZUWERFEN IST, FÜR SONSTIGE SCHÄDEN NUR BEI GROBER FAHRLÄSSIGKEIT ODER VORSATZ, UND ÜBERNIMMT DARÜBER HINAUS KEINERLEI FREIWILLIGE HAFTUNG.

7. Erlöschen

  1. Diese Lizenz und die durch sie eingeräumten Nutzungsrechte erlöschen mit Wirkung für die Zukunft im Falle eines Verstoßes gegen die Lizenzbedingungen durch Sie, ohne dass es dazu der Kenntnis des Lizenzgebers vom Verstoß oder einer weiteren Handlung einer der Vertragsparteien bedarf. Mit natürlichen oder juristischen Personen, die Abwandlungen des Schutzgegenstandes oder diesen enthaltende Sammelwerke unter den Bedingungen dieser Lizenz von Ihnen erhalten haben, bestehen nachträglich entstandene Lizenzbeziehungen jedoch solange weiter, wie die genannten Personen sich ihrerseits an sämtliche Lizenzbedingungen halten. Darüber hinaus gelten die Ziffern 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, und 8 auch nach einem Erlöschen dieser Lizenz fort.
  2. Vorbehaltlich der oben genannten Bedingungen gilt diese Lizenz unbefristet bis der rechtliche Schutz für den Schutzgegenstand ausläuft. Davon abgesehen behält der Lizenzgeber das Recht, den Schutzgegenstand unter anderen Lizenzbedingungen anzubieten oder die eigene Weitergabe des Schutzgegenstandes jederzeit einzustellen, solange die Ausübung dieses Rechts nicht einer Kündigung oder einem Widerruf dieser Lizenz (oder irgendeiner Weiterlizenzierung, die auf Grundlage dieser Lizenz bereits erfolgt ist bzw. zukünftig noch erfolgen muss) dient und diese Lizenz unter Berücksichtigung der oben zum Erlöschen genannten Bedingungen vollumfänglich wirksam bleibt.

8. Sonstige Bestimmungen

  1. Jedes Mal wenn Sie den Schutzgegenstand für sich genommen oder als Teil eines Sammelwerkes verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, bietet der Lizenzgeber dem Empfänger eine Lizenz zu den gleichen Bedingungen und im gleichen Umfang an, wie Ihnen in Form dieser Lizenz.
  2. Jedes Mal wenn Sie eine Abwandlung des Schutzgegenstandes verbreiten oder öffentlich zeigen, bietet der Lizenzgeber dem Empfänger eine Lizenz am ursprünglichen Schutzgegenstand zu den gleichen Bedingungen und im gleichen Umfang an, wie Ihnen in Form dieser Lizenz.
  3. Sollte eine Bestimmung dieser Lizenz unwirksam sein, so bleibt davon die Wirksamkeit der Lizenz im Übrigen unberührt.
  4. Keine Bestimmung dieser Lizenz soll als abbedungen und kein Verstoß gegen sie als zulässig gelten, solange die von dem Verzicht oder von dem Verstoß betroffene Seite nicht schriftlich zugestimmt hat.
  5. Diese Lizenz (zusammen mit in ihr ausdrücklich vorgesehenen Erlaubnissen, Mitteilungen und Zustimmungen, soweit diese tatsächlich vorliegen) stellt die vollständige Vereinbarung zwischen dem Lizenzgeber und Ihnen in Bezug auf den Schutzgegenstand dar. Es bestehen keine Abreden, Vereinbarungen oder Erklärungen in Bezug auf den Schutzgegenstand, die in dieser Lizenz nicht genannt sind. Rechtsgeschäftliche Änderungen des Verhältnisses zwischen dem Lizenzgeber und Ihnen sind nur über Modifikationen dieser Lizenz möglich. Der Lizenzgeber ist an etwaige zusätzliche, einseitig durch Sie übermittelte Bestimmungen nicht gebunden. Diese Lizenz kann nur durch schriftliche Vereinbarung zwischen Ihnen und dem Lizenzgeber modifiziert werden. Derlei Modifikationen wirken ausschließlich zwischen dem Lizenzgeber und Ihnen und wirken sich nicht auf die Dritten gemäß Ziffern 8.a) und b) angeboteten Lizenzen aus.
  6. Sofern zwischen Ihnen und dem Lizenzgeber keine anderweitige Vereinbarung getroffen wurde und soweit Wahlfreiheit besteht, findet auf diesen Lizenzvertrag das Recht der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Anwendung.

Creative Commons Notice

Creative Commons ist nicht Partei dieser Lizenz und übernimmt keinerlei Gewähr oder dergleichen in Bezug auf den Schutzgegenstand. Creative Commons haftet Ihnen oder einer anderen Partei unter keinem rechtlichen Gesichtspunkt für irgendwelche Schäden, die - abstrakt oder konkret, zufällig oder vorhersehbar - im Zusammenhang mit dieser Lizenz entstehen. Unbeschadet der vorangegangen beiden Sätze, hat Creative Commons alle Rechte und Pflichten eines Lizenzgebers, wenn es sich ausdrücklich als Lizenzgeber im Sinne dieser Lizenz bezeichnet.

Creative Commons gewährt den Parteien nur insoweit das Recht, das Logo und die Marke "Creative Commons" zu nutzen, als dies notwendig ist, um der Öffentlichkeit gegenüber kenntlich zu machen, dass der Schutzgegenstand unter einer CCPL steht. Ein darüber hinaus gehender Gebrauch der Marke "Creative Commons" oder einer verwandten Marke oder eines verwandten Logos bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Zustimmung von Creative Commons. Jeder erlaubte Gebrauch richtet sich nach der Creative Commons Marken-Nutzungs-Richtlinie in der jeweils aktuellen Fassung, die von Zeit zu Zeit auf der Website veröffentlicht oder auf andere Weise auf Anfrage zugänglich gemacht wird. Zur Klarstellung: Die genannten Einschränkungen der Markennutzung sind nicht Bestandteil dieser Lizenz.

Creative Commons kann kontaktiert werden über https://creativecommons.org/.

#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Marking your work with a CC license - Creative Commons

Marking your work with a CC license

From Creative Commons
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You have chosen a CC license for your work. Now how do you go about letting the world know? Here are some examples of how to mark your work with the CC license. Note: If you want to know how to attribute other creators' CC licensed materials, go here.

How to use the CC License Chooser

You can easily add a CC license notice to your website by visiting the CC license chooser. At the chooser, simply answer a few questions, fill in the fields you need, and receive an already formatted HTML code.

CC license chooser v2.png

At this point, all you have to do is:

1. Copy and paste the HTML code into your webpage or website.

The specifics of inserting the code depend on how you edit your website. The block of code should be inserted into the page HTML - most desktop website tools like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or GoLive offer a "code view" that lets you see the code that makes up your page. Near the end of the page before you see </body></html>, paste the HTML code in directly.
If all of the resources you are publishing on a single website are licensed under the same CC license, it makes sense to paste the HTML code into your website’s template (e.g., in a footer or sidebar area). After saving the template, the chosen license information should appear everywhere on your site. Whether you add license information to a single page or an entire site, once live on the Internet, the license information will be displayed and the machines will be able to detect the license status automatically.

2. Edit the descriptive text to suit your needs.

For example, if you select CC BY in the chooser, the default text you receive in the second line of html code is:
This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.
The bolded text is descriptive, and you can edit it without affecting the code. For example, you might specify what 'work' you're talking about, or let users know that the entire site is available under the license unless noted otherwise. You could edit the bolded part as follows:
Except where otherwise noted, this website is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Example: Website

Cc.org cc by license.jpg

This is the CC license notice at the bottom of this website. The CC BY license notice shows up on every page of creativecommons.org. This is a good example because:

Author? - Since the license is for the CC website as a whole, which includes multiple authors, one attribution party is not specified. Instead, it is clarified in the Terms of Use (linked in the footer on the left) who owns what content.
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) and linked.
Machine-readability? - Yup. Copied and pasted code from the license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Also, we make it clear that we will let you know when material is governed by terms different from the CC BY license.

Example: Blog

Parker's blog

If you visit Parker's blog, you will see this notice. Parker filled out a few fields in the CC license chooser, which spit out an html code. He copied and pasted the html code into his website, editing the descriptive text to his needs. This is a really good example because:

Author? - Parker specified that he is the author of the work.
License? - Parker named and linked to the specific CC license (Creative Commons Attribution).
Machine-readability? - Yup. Copied and pasted code from the license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Yup. Parker indicated that the site was "parker higgins dot net."

Example: Offline document

For documents that are meant to be shared offline, use a title and/or copyright page to include the copyright notice and CC license information. You can obtain suggested text using the license chooser.

Help others attribute you.jpg

In the 'Help others attribute you!' box, select 'Offline' in the drop-down menu for 'License mark'. Instead of html, you will receive the following text which you can edit as needed: "This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/." You can also download the corresponding CC license icon at our downloads page.

Example

Col cc notice.jpg

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) added this CC license notice to their copyright page in the report entitled, Survey on Governments’ Open Educational Resources (OER) Policies. This is a good example because:

Author? - "by The Commonwealth of Learning"
License? - The notice clearly specifies the CC BY-SA license along with a link.
Machine-readability? - No, it's an offline document.
Other good stuff? - COL added a (c) copyright notice and a title for the work. COL also added a license icon to make it visually appealing and recognizable. (All CC license icons can be downloaded for free here.)

If you link to the document on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

If you want to get technical and attempt embedding metadata within documents, see the CC-OpenOfficeOrg Addin for OpenOffice or the Microsoft Office add-ins for Microsoft Office 2003/XP, Office 2007/2010/2013.

Example: Image

8256206923 c77e85319e n.jpg
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol can be reused under the CC BY license

This photo was taken during CC's 10th birthday party in San Francisco by CC staff member tvol. This is a good example because:

Author? - "tvol" and linked to his Flickr profile page
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) and linked.
Machine-readability? - No, but it could be if we copied and pasted code from the CC license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Title is noted and linked to Flickr page where original image resides.

It is also easy to publish your image on an image sharing platform that has built-in CC licensing, such as Flickr, 500px, or Wikimedia Commons.

Note: We don't recommend adding a watermark or visual marker directly on an image, as it can detract from the original and prevent the reuse you want to allow with the CC license. Instead, make sure that the license information is clearly visible underneath (or otherwise next to) the image.

Example: Presentation

CC presentation example.jpg

This slide appears at the end of Jane Park's presentation called "Using the CC BY license, Workshop for 2013 OPEN Kick-off" at Slideshare. This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly specifies that Creative Commons is the party that should be credited, along with a request to link to creativecommons.org.
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) with a link provided.
Machine-readability? - Yes, because it was uploaded to Slideshare, a slide-sharing platform that supports CC licensing.
Other good stuff? - Jane made use of one of the free CC_video_bumpers to iconically illustrate the CC BY license. She also makes it clear that she will let you know when material is governed by terms different from the CC BY license ('Except otherwise noted..' ).

If you link to or embed the presentation on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

Example: Video

By bw small.png

This is a CC video bumper, which you can add to your video if you have room for a 2-5 second copyright frame. Here are some pre-made CC_video_bumpers and some newly updated bumpers (as of Feb. 2019).

You can edit these bumpers or create your own still with more information. Just make sure that such a still contains all the information recommended below.

Once you've added a copyright notice within your video, we recommend uploading your video to one of these video-sharing platforms that have built-in CC licensing. These platforms take care of the machine-readability for you. You can also add author and license info to any "about" field at these sites. After you've uploaded the videos, you can share the video on your own website or blog using the platform's "embed" feature.

If you link to or embed the video on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below. For example, this blog post does a good job of displaying the CC license information about the video outside of its medium.

Video embed example.jpg

If you want to get technical, we have a document about marking materials so that they are machine-readable.

Example: Audio

CC podcast introduction by Cory Doctorow

This is a sample CC audio bumper which you can add at the beginning of an audio file to orally tell users of the CC license. Feel free to use intro bumpers developed by various Internet celebrities. You can also create your own, which can include more information as recommended below.

For audio, we recommend uploading your file to one of the music sharing platforms or communities that support CC licensing. These platforms take care of the machine-readability for you. You can also add author and license info to any "about" field at these sites.

If you link to the file on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

If you want to get technical, Use your favorite audio player to add in the information. See Embedded_Metadata. You can also add ID3 tags to a common audio file type, such as the MP3, or browse other file types.

Example: Dataset

Rufous woodpecker metadata.jpg

This is a CC license notice for a snippet of metadata that is part of the India Biodiversity Portal dataset. All the info is displayed once you click on the "i" to "Show details." This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly noted in the Contributors field as "Chitra Ravi, Content Editor, India Biodiversity Portal"
License? - The specific CC license is displayed via CC BY license icon and linked to the deed.
Machine-readability? - No, but they're working on that.
Other good stuff? - References used to create the summary/brief noted. License and author info easily found by clicking on "i" for more details.
Rufous woodpecker image marking.jpg

This is the CC license notice for the image to the right of the dataset which in this case is governed by different terms. This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly noted once you click on the "i" under Attributions - Flickr user "ric seet"
License? - CC BY-NC-ND, which is displayed in icon and icon is linked to the deed
Machine-readability? - No, but they're working on that.
Other good stuff? - Link included to original Flickr image and even date that image was accessed. License and author info easily found by clicking on "i" for more details.

Author, License, Machine-readability

A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym ALM, which stands for Author, License, Machine-readability.

Author - Who should the user attribute?

This means the person who owns the copyright to the material and is licensing it to the public, aka the 'licensor.' If you are the licensor, then name yourself! If you're only one of the licensors, then name the others, too. If you are licensing the material on behalf of another entity, such as an organization, then you would note that instead.

License - How can the material be used?

This one's easy--they can use it under the CC license! Make sure to name the specific CC license the material is under and link to it, eg. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License with a link to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses!
→ Also consider including the corresponding CC license icon, a visible indication of the license that is recognized as part of the CC brand around the world, eg. http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/80x15.png

Machine-readability - Can machines read it?

We live in the digital age, so this is very important. If you want search engines and software systems to be able to detect the CC license, then make sure to use our license chooser tool to get the machine-readable html code, which you can then easily paste into web pages. This code is simply a summary of the license in a format that machines can understand, hence the term "machine-readability". (Note: You can also upload your work to a content sharing platform that supports CC licensing and takes care of the machine-readability for you.)

Lastly, Is there anything else the user should know about the material?

Is your work a modification of another work? Does your work incorporate elements of several third party materials? Are you adding any warranties, or modifying the existing disclaimer in the CC license? Are you granting additional permissions beyond what the license allows? If your answer is yes to any of these, then you should note that along with the license information about your work. For example, if your work incorporates third party materials, you would note those materials and make sure to attribute each of them correctly. This is also your chance to grant additional permissions. For example, if you license something under CC BY but are okay with people not attributing you in certain cases--this is your chance to specify those cases. You can't change the terms of a CC license, but you can always grant additional permissions or warranties.

Content-sharing platforms

One way to increase visibility and access to your work is to share it with an existing community on a content-sharing platform. Many platforms support machine-automated CC licensing, making it easy for you to indicate the license along with other information, such as who to attribute. In addition, these platforms may offer the ability to filter or search content by CC license, which increases the chances that your work may be discovered. Search engines, such as Google or Yahoo!, also index CC-licensed works from these platforms.

Take a look at how to license your work on a few of these platforms, like Vimeo and Soundcloud, at Publish.

If your favorite platform does not enable CC licensing, the best thing to do is to add in the license information manually as you would on your own site. There is usually a description or other free form field where you can enter info about the work. You might also consider encouraging your platform or community to enable CC licensing. If the demand is great, they just might listen.

Adding a CC0 public domain notice to your work

If you have decided to dedicate your work to the public domain using CC0, you can use the CC0 waiver tool just like you use the CC license chooser. Simply fill in the fields at the form, go through the the necessary steps of reading and understanding what rights you are giving up with CC0, and receive the already formatted html code at the end, as show below.

Ml blog cc0.jpg File:Ml blog cc0 2.jpg

Then copy and paste the resulting html into your website as you normally would, following best practices outlined above for adding a CC license using the license chooser.

You can see how Mike did that here, and by visiting his blog: File:Ml blog cc0 3.jpg

You can also upload your work to a content-sharing platform that supports CC0.

If you want to mark specific media, see the different examples above. You would simply exchange the CC license text with the CC0 waiver text, shown in the example below.

Example: CC0

Casey image cc0.jpg

The text reads: "Copyright and related rights waived via CC0"

This blog post is a good example of marking an image with CC0 instead of a CC license because:

It tells you what the CC0 tool actually does and links to the CC0 deed so that users may understand further. It is also clear that CC0 is not a license, but a waiver.

Other issues

Adding a CC license to your derivative work

If the work you are licensing is a derivative of another work, then in addition to following best practices above, you need to let your potential users know a few things:

  • That your work is a derivative of another work
  • Attribution for the original work (see Best practices for attribution)
  • If there are any other rights (eg. third party content used under fair use or other exceptions) that they should be aware of

Remember that if your work is an adaptation of a work licensed under either CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA, then your derivative work must be made available under the same license as per the ShareAlike condition.

Note: When modifying materials under one of the Version 4.0 CC licenses, you must make a note of any modifications you make to the materials, regardless of whether the modification is significant enough to merit a derivative work. For examples, see Best practices for attribution.

Noting third-party content in your work

When you add a CC license to your work, you are only granting permissions to the rights you hold in the work. So if your work is a derivative of another creator's CC-licensed work, or otherwise incorporates third-party content under fair use or other exceptions, then you should make a note of that for your users. Your CC license only ever covers the rights you have in the content you create, and never other content by third parties.

If you are incorporating materials offered under other CC licenses, then see our best practices for attribution.

For more information, or for tips on how to mark content that is incorporated under fair use or other exceptions, see marking third-party content.

Don't call it a CC license if it isn't

When marking your work, remember that any restriction or modification to the original license cannot be labeled a 'Creative Commons’ license. See our Trademark policy.es: Marcando tu obra con una licencia CC

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license&oldid=116977"

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#####EOF##### Made with Creative Commons - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Use & remix > Made with Creative Commons

Made with Creative Commons

made_with_cc_cover

A guide to sharing your knowledge and creativity with the world, and sustaining your operation while you do.

by Paul Stacey and Sarah Hinchliff Pearson
Licensed CC BY-SA

 

 

 

 

Purchase a print copy from our publisher Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
Purchase a print copy from Amazon.

Download a free PDF of the book.
Download a free EPUB of the book.
Download a free MOBI of the book.
Download an editable version of the book (GDoc).

Special thanks to Mario Lurig and Eric Hellman for donating their time to create the .epub and .mobi versions of this book. Eric is also making a downloadable ebook version of Made With Creative Commons available on his Unglue.it web site here.

See how our community is using the book!

For press and other inquiries, please contact madewithcc@creativecommons.org.

 

#####EOF##### Network Strategy: the transition towards a new model - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Global affiliates > Network Strategy: the transition towards a new model

Network Strategy: the transition towards a new model

Claudio Ruiz

December 8, 2017

In June we shared our community plan to implement the new CC Network Strategy, showing the benefits of a new international structure with an enhanced Chapter model, working together at a global scale with the Network Platforms, and a new governance structure to support the network.

The Creative Commons network has always been one of the critical pieces of the success of the CC licenses. At the outset, CC was mostly a legal project trying to reach a global audience of users and creators. Years later, our community required new ways of working together, with projects and advocacy and education playing a bigger role, and enhanced means of communication and collaboration as central to the community. The new Network Strategy, written collaboratively by community members, was the primary outcome of a process for change and adaptation begun at the CC Summit in Seoul, in October, 2015.

Implementing the strategy properly, with all the needed infrastructure, has been a big task. While the first network grew organically over many years, this one is being designed deliberately on concrete timelines. It has involved our web dev staff, legal review, communications, and lots of work from the Advisory Group team. It has been more complex than anyone thought, but we’re proud of what we’ve done to bring it together. We want to get it right for all of you, and we think we’ve done significant work that will serve the network well, and avoid problems in the future.

What we have done:

  • We created a suite of documentation for the Network Strategy transition.
    • A Guide for vouching applicants. This document provides guidance about what to take into account at the moment of deciding to vouch for someone to join the Network
    • A Guide for approving new members. This guides members of the Membership Council regarding criteria for approving already vouched applicants.
    • Chapter Standards and Guidelines. This document provides a more detailed explanation of how Chapters should organize, indicating standards, responsibilities, membership, and examples of what else a Chapter can do.
    • An updated Charter. Minor updates, but we improved the language of policies and established a better way to make future changes. We also created an official version available on the CC website.
  • We built a brand-new network website and member application and management infrastructure. We have implemented BuddyPress as a backend to manage members and their applications, and we have been creating brand new plugins to support the entire process of application, vouching and approval within the website. This has been a massive project for design and development. We expect this to be the “door” for people who want to be connected with the CC community in any capacity (including membership). So, we are creating ways to make people feel welcomed and driving them to different ways to be engaged with CC.
  • We massively updated Terms of services and Privacy Policies. This was an intended consequence of the new Strategy. We created brand new ToS for the Network website and also radically changed our entire Privacy Policy, not just to comply with the requirements of the whole memberships/vouching system, but also to update it after some years of use.

All of this work is vital, but it has required us to stretch our original timelines. We will now open up memberships a bit later, and will as a result also extend the time before the first GNC meeting to allow chapters to form, meet, and select their representatives. What we are doing here is massive and will significantly grow the network. We’re grateful for all your work and energy. We want to do everything right, and we prefer to launch with everything in place and to be ready to communicate to the world what we are doing, inviting all to be part of this process.

What’s next:

  • We are shifting the timelines. We are finishing the design and backend of the Network website by mid-December. We start communicating more broadly in December and early January, and will open membership on January 15th. The window for the first Chapter meeting will be in March 2018.
  • The first Global Network Council meeting will be after the Summit — it will not be during the summit, as we had initially imagined. We will use the Summit to advance the core work of Network Platforms and Working Groups, which are open to everyone, for community discussions and chapter meetups, and to engage new members. We will also use the Summit to advance into conversations about governance and the Network. We plan to have the first GNC meeting by May/June 2018.

The Global Summit will celebrate the CC Network and the affiliate teams that built the CC community we have today. It will be a great moment to celebrate what we achieved during all these years and what brings us together, as we move into the future. We expect this Summit to be a place to share ideas and strategies to improve -and fight for- the commons at a global scale.

The new timeline means we will have more time to prepare for this big change – more time to talk with your local peers, host more meetings and conferences, and maintain better and more impactful projects. From now to the Summit, we will continue supporting activities around the globe with our Activities Fund. We encourage you to keep advocating for openness in your communities and to consider joining the network as soon as we are “open” for members.

 

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#####EOF##### CC Affiliate Network - Creative Commons

CC Affiliate Network

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As of Apr 2017, Creative Commons is shifting from the current Affiliate Program to a new Global Network structure. This page contains all resources related to the Affiliates and the history of the CC Affiliates Network and will no longer be updated once the transition process is completed.

If you are interested in learning more about or interested in joining CC Global Network, please read this article. If you have any questions or requests regarding CC’s global network, please join our community channel on Slack or contact Simeon Oriko, Global Network Manager, at network@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons Affiliate Network consists of 100+ affiliates with over 500 volunteers and community members who serve as CC representatives in over 85 countries.

The teams have a wide range of responsibilities, including public outreach, community building, translating information and tools, fielding inquiries, conducting research, communicating with the public, maintaining resources for CC users, and in general, promoting sharing and our mission. These teams have a formal relationship with Creative Commons via an agreement between organizations, universities or individuals in the jurisdiction and CC HQ.

Visit Affiliates page on the CC wiki for more information, including regional activities and history of our work.

List of Affiliates by Jurisdiction


The Licensing Suite

Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses written to conform to international treaties governing copyright. The international licenses, as well as existing ported licenses, are all intended to be effective anywhere in the world, with the same effect. In the past, when it was demonstrated that a ported license was needed, Creative Commons worked with experts to craft a localized version of its six, core international licenses. Over 50 ported license suites exist. These ported licenses are based on and compatible with the international license suite, differing only in that they have been modified to reflect local nuances in how terms and conditions are expressed, drafting protocols and, of course, language. They are effective worldwide, as is the international license suite. The most recent international license suite available is 4.0. Version 4.0 will not be ported absent compelling circumstances; CC will begin considering requests to port the 4.0 suite in mid-2014.



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#####EOF##### Considerations for licensors and licensees - Creative Commons

Considerations for licensors and licensees

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The following list sets out some basic things that you should think about before you apply a Creative Commons license to your material, or use Creative Commons-licensed material. It is not an exhaustive list. If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to post to one of our email discussion lists, send us an email at info@creativecommons.org, send an email to one of our country project leads or obtain your own legal advice.

Considerations for Licensors - if you are licensing your own work
Considerations for Licensees - if you are using someone else's work

Contents

Considerations for licensors

Irrevocability

Remember the license may not be revoked.

Once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright and similar rights, even if you later stop distributing it.

Type of material

Make sure the material is appropriate for CC licensing.

CC licenses are appropriate for all types of content you want to share publicly, except software and hardware.

Specify precisely what it is you are licensing.

Any given work has multiple elements; e.g., text, images, music. Make sure to clearly mark or indicate in a notice which of those are covered by the license.

Nature and adequacy of rights

Make sure the material is subject to copyright or similar rights.

CC licenses are operative only where copyright, sui generis database rights, or other rights closely related to copyright come into play. They should not be applied to material in the public domain.

Clear rights needed to use the material.

If the material includes rights held by others, make sure to get permission to sublicense those rights under the CC license. If you created the material in the scope of your employment or as a work-for-hire, you may not be the holder of the rights and may need to get permission before applying a CC license.

Indicate rights not covered by the license.

Prominently mark or indicate in a notice any rights held by third parties, such as publicity or trademark rights. This includes any content you used under exceptions or limitations to copyright, and any third party content used under another license (even if it is the same CC license as you applied).

Type of license

Think about how you want the material to be used.

Consider what you hope to achieve by sharing your work when determining which of the six CC licenses to apply. For example, if you want it to appear in a Wikipedia article, it must be licensed using BY-SA or a compatible license.

Consider any obligations that may affect what type of license you apply.

Think about any obligations you have, such as licensing requirements from a funding source, employment agreement, or limitations on your ability to use a CC license imposed by a collecting society, that dictate which (if any) of the six CC licenses you can apply.

Additional provisions

Consider offering a warranty.

If you are confident you have cleared all rights in the material, you may choose to warrant that the work does not violate the rights of any third parties.

Specify additional permissions, if desired.

You have the option of granting permissions above and beyond what the license allows; for example, allowing licensees to translate ND-licensed material. If so, consider using CC+ to indicate the additional permissions offered.

Special preferences

Specify attribution information if desired.

You may indicate particular attribution parties, a URI for the material, and other attribution information for licensees to retain.

Indicate any non binding requests.

You may ask licensees to adhere to your special requests, such as marking or describing changes they make to your material.

Considerations for licensees

Understand the license.

Read the legal code, not just the deed.

The human-readable deed is a summary of, but not a replacement for, the legal code. It does not explain everything you need to know before using licensed material.

Make sure the license grants permission for what you want to do.

There are six different CC licenses. Two of the licenses prohibit the sharing of adaptations (BY-ND, BY-NC-ND); three prohibit commercial uses (BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA), and two require adaptations be licensed under the same license (BY-SA, BY-NC-SA).

Take note of the particular version of the license.

The current version (4.0) differs from prior versions in important respects. Similarly, the jurisdiction ports may differ in certain terms, such as dispute resolution and choice of law.

Scope of the license.

Pay attention to what exactly is being licensed.

The licensor should have marked which elements of the work are subject to the license and which are not. For those elements that are not subject to the license, you may need separate permission.

Consider clearing rights if you are concerned.

The license does not contain a warranty, so if you think there may be third party rights in the material, you may want to clear those rights in advance.

Some uses of licensed material do not require permission under the license.

If the use you want to make of a work falls within an exception or limitation to copyright or similar rights, you may do so. Those uses are unregulated by the license.

Know your obligations.

Provide attribution.

All CC licenses require you provide attribution and mark the material when you share it publicly. The specific requirements vary slightly across versions.

Do not restrict others from exercising rights under the license.

All CC licenses prohibit you from applying effective technological measures or imposing legal terms that would prevent others from doing what the license permits.

Determine what, if anything, you can do with adaptations you make.

Depending on what type of license is applied, you are limited in whether you can share your adaptation and if so, what license you can apply to your contributions.

Termination is automatic.

All CC licenses terminate automatically when you fail to comply with its terms. If the material is under a 4.0 license, you must fix the problem within 30 days of discovery if you want your rights automatically reinstated.

Consider licensor preferences.

Consider complying with non-binding requests by the licensor.

The licensor may make special requests when you use the material. We recommend you do so when reasonable, but that is your option and not your obligation.

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#####EOF##### CCPlus - Creative Commons

CCPlus

From Creative Commons
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CC+ denotes the combination of a CC official license (unmodified and verbatim) + another separate and independent agreement granting more permissions.

It is NOT a new or different license or any license at all, but a facilitation of more Permissions beyond ANY standard CC licenses. Worth emphasizing is that CC+ (and use of that mark) requires that the work be licensed under a standard CC license that provides a baseline set of permissions that have not been modified or customized but reproduces the license verbatim. The plus (+) signifies that all of those same permissions are granted, plus more.


Note that in order to use CC+ the additional permissions must be set forth in a separate document or resource -- the official legal code within the "corners" of the license cannot be added to or changed.


If you want to adopt CC+, please (1) implement CC+ on your site, (2) add your project/company name, and (3) let us know!


Simple Explanation

The basic concept is to have a Creative Commons license + some other agreement which provides morePermissions.

Cc-by-nc-3.0-88x31.png + Commercial-license-button.png

NOTE: Above, the CC license should link to the human deed and the generic commercial license would link to a place to get a commercial license for a work. The COMMERCIAL LICENSE is generic and should be tailored for specific uses with specific names of copyright holders.

Here is the SVG (vector graphic) to the generic button if you would like to construct a commercial licensing button for your usage. The button is released into the public domain.

Summary

CC+ is a protocol providing a simple way for users to get rights beyond the rights granted by a CC license. For example, a work's Creative Commons license might offer noncommercial rights. With CC+, the license can link to a resource indicating how a reuser may secure commercial rights or other additional permissions or services such as warranty, permission to use without attribution, or even access to physical media.


Solvable Problems

Legal

Creative Commons has solved this with Creative Commons licensing. Creative Commons has this one locked down. Rely on CC.

Human

Creative Commons has structured this so that you and/or your project can implement the rest of the social part to this equation.

  • CC+ General.pdf - CC and CC+ Overview for the World Wide Web (pdf)
  • Concepts and Pieces
    • healthy ecosystem

Technical

Similar to #Human, CC has structured the Technical part of CC+ so that you can implement the technical standard to be in compliance.

  • CC+ Technical.pdf - CC+ Technical Implementation for the World Wide Web (pdf) explaining how to add CC+ functionality to your site.
  • Concepts and Pieces

Easy CC+ Markups

Simplest CC+ Example

My Book by Jon Phillips is licensed under a 

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">Creative Commons 
Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License</a>. 

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at 
<a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" rel="cc:morePermissions" 
href="http://somecompany.com/revenue_sharing_agreement">somecompany.com</a>.

A complete CC+ Implementation

<span xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">

<span rel="dc:type" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" property="dc:title">My Book</span> by 
<a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://rejon.org/my_book">Jon Phillips</a> 

is licensed under a 

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">Creative Commons 
Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License</a>. 

<span rel="dc:source" href="http://deerfang.org/her_book"/>
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at 
<a rel="cc:morePermissions" 
href="http://somecompany.com/revenue_sharing_agreement">somecompany.com</a>.

</span>

A simple example of custom agreement on the same page

<a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" rel="cc:morePermissions" href="#agreement">below</a>

<a id="agreement">The Agreement</a>
... agreement text...

A simple agreement leading to mailto

<a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" 
   rel="cc:morePermissions" href="mailto:someuser@somedomain.com">custom license</a>

<br\> Please note: the additional CC+ section in the deed will appear only if the document you're clicking to the deed from is accessible on the public Internet.

Use Cases

  • Restrict commercial use with a CC license with the NonCommercial condition, and then use a separate agreement with some party (could be yourself or third-party) to broker commercial rights (licensing, sales, reproduction, etc).
  • Require that adaptions are shared with a CC license with the ShareAlike condition, but offer a separate agreement (as above) for parties that do not want to release derivatives under the same license. Similar use cases for offering a private agreement for parties that wish to avoid fulfilling the Attribution or NoDerivatives properties of applicable CC licenses.
  • Offer a private agreement for parties that require one (eg for institutional policy or insurance reasons), even if their use would be within the scope of the public license grant.
  • To implement some type of Street Performer Protocol system to put works to the public domain or into another license, preferably more free and in the community interest.

Media

  • Ccplus slides.035.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.039.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.044.jpg

Examples

Jamendo

  • Ccplus slides.046.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.047.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.048.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.050.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.051.jpg

Magnatune

  • Ccplus slides.052.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.053.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.054.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.055.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.057.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.058.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.059.jpg

BeatPick

  • Ccplus slides.061.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.062.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.063.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.064.jpg
  • Ccplus slides.065.jpg

Mockups

Actual

Adopters

FAQ

What is a simple way of explaining CC+?

CC+ is just what it sounds like, a Creative Commons license plus another agreement. A copyright holder might pair a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license [CC] with a non-exclusive commercial agreement [+] enabling a company to license the work commercially for a fee.

Isn't CC+ just a technological facilitation of dual licensing?

Yes. A copyright holder who uses a Creative Commons license is already adding a license on top of their copyright. CC+ can make it easier for that copyright-holder to add other non-exclusive licenses/agreements as alternatives.

External Links

How do you get involved?

Jump on over to the CC-Community and/or CC-Licenses email lists for further discussion on CCPlus.

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#####EOF##### Policy / advocacy / copyright reform - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Program areas > Policy / advocacy / copyright reform

Policy / advocacy / copyright reform

Open Licensing Policy

The adoption of Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools is beneficial to society as a whole. Open licensing helps public institutions better meet their missions of disseminating digital resources and data, breaking down the typical barriers associated with traditional copyright by granting broad permissions in advance. The integration of Creative Commons licensing and publicly funded education, research, and data clearly communicates to the users served by these policies the conditions of reuse. There’s a huge potential to drastically increase the impact of public funding through the adoption of open licenses.

Creative Commons licenses are being integrated and incorporated into public, foundation, and institutional policies around the globe. For example, government agencies are requiring that publicly funded education and research resources be released under Creative Commons licenses. Multiple philanthropic foundations are adopting open licenses and intellectual property policies to expand the reach of their charitable investments. Both government and foundation open policies require (as a condition of funding) their grantees to openly license what they build and revise with grant funds. Cities are sharing useful health, traffic, weather, and crime data under open licenses to increase transparency and re-use of data for the public benefit. And intergovernmental organizations are using open licenses to share cultural heritage materials, reports, educational resources, research, and data with the world.

Copyright Reform

While Creative Commons continues it outreach and advocacy on open licensing policy adoption, we have always known that voluntary licensing schemes will never be a comprehensive solution for access to and reuse of knowledge and creativity around the world. For this reason, we believe that fundamental law and regulatory reform is needed, regardless of the success of the CC licenses and their utility in promoting a more equal, just, and fair society.

The Creative Commons global network is involved in education and action to promote progressive changes to copyright that will benefit users and the public interest. This work is represented in our organizational strategy, and aligned with our vision and mission.We respond to requests for comments on public policy issues related to copyright and intellectual property, and we’re involved in a variety of working groups and projects that aim to integrate open licensing and public domain tools into policy and practice. We are actively involved in advocacy to support positive legal and regulatory changes—from Europe to Asia to Latin America— and even at international fora such as WIPO.

 

 

Policy Projects

Open Policy Network

The Open Policy Network (OPN) fosters the creation, adoption and implementation of open policies and practices that advance the public good by supporting advocates, organizations, and policy makers with information and expertise, and connecting policy opportunities with those who can provide assistance. Over the last several years, Creative Commons and related organizations have been contacted by many institutions and governments seeking assistance on how to implement open licensing and develop materials and strategies for open policies. By "open policies," we mean policies whereby publicly funded resources are developed and released as openly licensed resources. There is a pressing need to provide support to policymakers so they can successfully create, adopt, and implement open policies.

Institute for Open Leadership

The Institute for Open Leadership (IOL) trains new leaders interested in openness and policy with the passion and potential to make a high impact at their institution through the adoption of open policy. The IOL selects twenty applicants per year–through a competitive application process–to participate in an intensive weeklong training session with leading experts in open fields. Each participant will develop an outcomes-based plan for a capstone open policy project, and report on progress within one year. Through training and the project period, participants will develop the skills, relationships, and motivation to become leaders for openness in their institutions and fields.

Community Engagement and Advocacy

We work in providing outreach, education, and advocacy for open licensing and open policy across a variety of disciplines, including areas such as public sector information/open data, open access to scholarly research, open educational resources, galleries, libraries, archives, museums (GLAMs), and philanthropic foundations. We have observer status at the World Intellectual Property Organization and provide interventions there on relevant topics. We participate in working groups on these and related topics, such as the Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information (LAPSI), the International Communia Association, and the SPARC Open Access Working Group. We also advocate for copyright reform in areas that align with our mission.

Get involved

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Image credits

#####EOF##### License Versions - Creative Commons

License Versions

From Creative Commons
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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=License_Versions&oldid=115094"

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#####EOF##### Terms pre 2010-08-04 - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Terms of Use > Terms pre 2010-08-04

Terms pre 2010-08-04

Table of Contents

  1. General Information Regarding These Master Terms of Use (“Master Terms”).
  2. Your Agreement to the Terms.
  3. Changes to the Terms.
  4. Provision of the Websites and Services Generally.
  5. No Legal Advice.
  6. Location of the Websites and Services.
  7. User Conduct.
  8. Terms Relating to Content on the Websites and Services.
  9. Third Party Websites and Content; Links.
  10. Participating in Our Community: Registered Users.
  11. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES.
  12. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
  13. Indemnification for Breach of Terms of Use.
  14. Privacy Policy.
  15. Trademarks.
  16. Copyright Complaints; DMCA Compliance.
  17. Termination of this Agreement.
  18. Miscellaneous Terms.

1. General Information Regarding These Master Terms of Use (“Master Terms”).

Please read these terms carefully because they apply to your use of all of the websites that Creative Commons Corporation operates other than our ccNetwork website (https://creativecommons.net/) (collectively, the websites to which these terms apply, the “Websites”), including the products and services provided through the Websites (collectively, the “Services”). Websites include, but are not limited to, the websites operated at http://creativecommons.org and http://sciencecommons.org (collectively, together with all sub-domains thereof, including but not limited to http://learn.creativecommons.org, http://opened.creativecommons.org, and http://discovered.creativecommons.org/search/. Creative Commons Corporation (“CC” or “Creative Commons”) is a Massachusetts corporation with a business office at 171 Second St., Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, United States.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing with Creative Commons, your use of any Website or Service will always be subject to, at a minimum, the terms and conditions set out in this document. These are referred to as the “Master Terms.”

In addition, your use of any Website or Service may also be subject to the terms of any legal notice applicable to the Website or Service, in addition to the Master Terms. All such terms supplementing these Master Terms are referred to below as the “Additional Terms.” Where Additional Terms apply to a Website or Service, these will be accessible for you to read either within, or through your use of, that Website or Service.

The Master Terms, together with any Additional Terms, form a binding legal agreement between you and Creative Commons in relation to your use of the Websites and the Services. Collectively, this legal agreement is referred to below as the “Terms.” If there is any contradiction between the Additional Terms and the Master Terms, then the Additional Terms shall take precedence in relation to the Website or Service to which the Additional Terms apply.

2. Your Agreement to the Terms.

YOUR ACCESS OR USE OFANY WEBSITE OR SERVICE IN ANY WAY SIGNIFIES THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS. By accessing or using any Website or Service you also represent that you have the legal authority to accept the Terms on behalf of yourself and any party you represent in connection with your use of any Website or Service. If you do not agree to the Terms, you are not authorized to use any Website or Service.

3. Changes to the Terms.

From time to time, Creative Commons may change, remove, add to (including without limitation by way of Additional Terms) or otherwise modify the Terms, and reserves the right to do so in its discretion. In that case, we will post the updated Master Terms or Additional Terms, as relevant, to the applicable Website(s) and indicate the date of revision. We encourage you to periodically review the Terms. In addition, if our modifications are material, we will make commercially reasonable efforts to notify you electronically. For example, we may send a message to your email address, if we have one on file, or we may display a notice on the Websites indicating that the Terms have changed. All new and/or amended Terms take effect immediately; provided, however, that if deemed material by Creative Commons it its sole discretion, such new and/or additional material terms will be marked as such and will take effect 30 days after they are posted on the applicable Website. Notwithstanding the foregoing, (i) no modification to the Terms will apply to any dispute between you and Creative Commons that arose prior to the effective date of any modification and (ii) if you do not agree with any modification to the Terms, you may terminate this agreement by ceasing use of the Websites and Services. Your continued use of any Website or Service after new and/or revised Terms are effective indicate that you have read, understood and agreed to those Terms.

4. Provision of the Websites and Services Generally.

Creative Commons makes the Websites and Services available to you on the Terms. You may only use the Websites and Services in accordance with these Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms. In particular but without limitation, you may not use the Websites and Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Master Terms, any applicable Additional Terms, or any other conditions or notices that are made available on any Website or Service.

5. No Legal Advice.

Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Using the Websites or Services or sending us an email does not create an attorney-client relationship. In particular but without limitation, use of any of CC’s legal tools or licenses and/or using any Services relating to CC’s legal tools or licenses (including without limitation the CC0 Chooser, the License Chooser or the Scholar’s Copyright Addendum) does not constitute legal advice nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. You are advised to consult with your own legal counsel before using CC’s legal tools or licenses. Creative Commons provides all Websites, Services, information, tools and licenses on an “as-is” basis. Creative Commons makes no warranties regarding any information, tools or licenses provided on or through the Websites and Services, and disclaims liability for damages resulting from their use.

6. Location of the Websites and Services.

The Websites and Services are controlled and offered by CC from its facilities in the United States of America. CC makes no representations that the Websites or Services are appropriate or available for use in other locations. If you are accessing or using any Website or Service from other jurisdictions, you do so at your own risk and you are responsible for compliance with local law. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Websites may contain or provide links to Content (defined in Section 8, below) hosted on websites located outside of the United States of America.

7. User Conduct.

Users agree not to use the Websites or Services to:

  1. Post, use or transmit Content that you do not have the right to post or use, for example, under intellectual property, confidentiality, privacy or other applicable laws;
  2. Post, use or transmit unsolicited or unauthorized Content, including advertising or promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of unsolicited or unwelcome solicitation or advertising;
  3. Post, use or transmit Content that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment or otherwise interfere with or disrupt the Websites or Services or servers or networks connected to the Websites or Services, or that disobeys any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Websites or Services;
  4. Post or transmit Content that is harmful, offensive, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, defamatory, hateful or otherwise discriminatory, false and misleading, incites an illegal act, or is otherwise in breach of your obligations to any person or contrary to any applicable laws and regulations;
  5. Intimidate or harass another;
  6. Use or attempt to use another’s account, service, or personal information;
  7. Remove, circumvent, disable, damage or otherwise interfere with any security-related features that enforce limitations on the use of the Websites or Services;
  8. Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Websites or Services, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Websites or Services, through hacking password mining or any other means or interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Websites or Services or any activities conducted through the Websites or Services;
  9. Use any means to bypass or ignore robot.txt, or other measures we use to restrict access or use of the Websites or Services;
  10. Impersonate another person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity; or
  11. Post or transmit any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age, including without limitation in connection with the OpenEd Website (located at http://opened.creativecommons.org) or the Services offered thereon.

In addition, you may not (and may not authorize another party to): (i) frame or otherwise co-brand the Websites or Services (for example, by displaying a name, logo, trademark or other means of attribution of a third party that is reasonably likely to give the user the impression that that third party has the right to display, publish or distribute the Website or Service); or, (ii) use any Website or Service in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage or impair such Website or Service, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of any Website or Service.

8. Terms Relating to Content on the Websites and Services.

  1. Responsibility for Content. You understand that all material, data and information, such as data files, written text, computer software, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos or other images (collectively, “Content”) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Websites and Services are the sole responsibility of the person from which such Content originated. This includes assertions that persons may make, expressly or impliedly, about the provenance and ownership of Content that they supply, upload, list and/or link to. You acknowledge that Creative Commons does not make any representations or warranties about the Content, including without limitation, about the accuracy, integrity or quality of the Content made available at the instigation of users of the Websites and Services. You understand that by using the Websites and Services, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable. Under no circumstances is Creative Commons liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to: any infringing Content, any errors or omissions in Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, transmitted to, linked to or otherwise accessible or made available via the Websites and Services.
  2. Licenses Associated With Content on the Websites and Services.
    1. CC Content: All Content (other than computer software) owned by Creative Commons and made available by CC on the Websites or through the Services is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, unless marked otherwise.
    2. Your Content: You retain the copyright in your Content that you provide on the Websites or in connection with the Services. You hereby agree that all Content you voluntarily provide to CC on or through any Website or Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, is not copyrightable, or is in the public domain (such as Content you or another make available under CC0). When you post your Content, you designate Creative Commons (including the relevant CC project, such as ccLearn or Science Commons) as the “Attribution Party” for the purposes of the Attribution 3.0 license, as defined therein, and grant permission for the relevant Website URI to be associated with your Content for purposes of that license. If Content you provide is protected by copyright, then if it is not licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, you must not provide it to CC. For the avoidance of doubt, you may otherwise license your Content on any terms or no terms at all, but upon uploading or supplying Content protected by copyright to CC on the Websites or in connection with the Services, you are licensing such Content under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license in addition to any such other license that may apply to your Content, and designating Creative Commons (and any relevant CC project) as the Attribution Party for purposes of that license; provided, however, that this subparagraph (b)(ii) shall not apply to Content, if any, that you identify or reference when using our License Chooser or CC0 Chooser but that you do not supply or upload onto the Websites or in connection with the Services.
    3. Third Party Content: Third Party Content and Third Party Websites (as defined in Section 9, below) that CC links to or embeds in the Websites or that are provided through the Services, including but not limited to blogs and news feeds, are subject to the license terms accompanying such Content. For Third Party Content and Third Party Websites that CC supplies, as a courtesy Creative Commons will take reasonable steps to clearly mark any such Third Party Content or Third Party Websites that are not licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license; provided, however, that CC cannot and does not make any guarantee or warranty whatsoever about the license terms of Third Party Content or Third Party Websites and provides all such information AS-IS. We encourage you to always verify the license of any such Content before use.
    4. Search Results: Creative Commons provides website search tools as a Service on some of the Websites. Those search tools may return Content that is not CC licensed. CC will make reasonable efforts to clearly mark whether such Content is licensed under a CC license based on any license information our search tools are able to locate and interpret. As stated above, you should independently verify the terms of the license attached to any Content you intend to use.
  3. Content You Provide.You may only submit Content to the Websites or in connection with the Services that you have the right to submit. This means that you can only submit Content that you yourself create, that is in the public domain or that you have been expressly granted the right to submit consistent with the Terms. For the avoidance of doubt, Content that infringes the rights of any third party (e.g., Content used without express permission of the copyright owner and not otherwise permitted by law) must not be submitted. You represent, warrant and agree that no Content of any kind submitted, posted or otherwise shared by you on or through any of the Websites or Services, violates or infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary rights, or contains libelous, defamatory or otherwise unlawful material. Further, you represent, warrant and agree not to submit any personally identifiable information, including any Content containing personally identifiable information, about any person who is under 13 years of age. Creative Commons may, but is not obligated to, review your submissions and may delete or remove (without notice) any Content in its sole discretion that Creative Commons determines violates the Terms or that may be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm or threaten the safety of others. Creative Commons does not endorse or support any Content posted by you or any other third party on or through the Websites or Services. You alone are responsible for creating backup copies and replacing any Content you post on the Websites or Services, and you authorize Creative Commons to make copies of your Content as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting of your Content on the Websites or Services. You may request the removal of your Content from the Websites or Services at any time, and CC will take reasonable steps to promptly remove such Content; provided, however, that CC can remove any such Content only from its Websites and cannot remove Content from email archives, wiki history pages and similar community forums where you may post content, or others’ computers, such as Content you may have sent to others in an email posted to a CC email list. If you choose to remove your Content, the Creative Commons license you granted when submitting such Content (see subparagraph (b)(ii), above) will remain in full force and effect in accordance with its terms.
  4. Use of Content on the Website or Services.You may use the Content you find on the Websites or Services in accordance with the terms of the license applicable to that Content. For the avoidance of doubt, you must attribute all Content (except public domain Content) in the manner specified by the author or licensor (including attribution to any designated Attribution Party) and in accordance with the terms of such license and you must not remove or alter any copyright, trademark, name or other notice or legend that appears in connection with the Content. You represent and warrant to Creative Commons that you will use any and all Content on our Websites or Services in accordance with the applicable license. You should be sure to review the terms of that license before you use the Content to which it applies so that you know what you can and cannot do.By using the Websites or Services, you agree that you are solely responsible for your use of any and all Content made available thereon. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the provenance, ownership, accuracy, completeness, or reliability of such Content. In this regard, you acknowledge that you may not rely on any Content made available on the Websites or Services without your own independent evaluation of that Content. Creative Commons does not guarantee that Content made available on the Websites or Services does not infringe the rights of any third party.

9. Third Party Websites and Content; Links.

The Websites or Services may contain links to websites not controlled by Creative Commons (“Third Party Websites”), as well as Content belonging to or originating from persons or organizations other than Creative Commons (“Third Party Content”). You acknowledge that Creative Commons is not responsible or liable for any Third Party Websites or any Third Party Content, information or products made available at any Third Party Website, regardless of whether Third Party Websites provide the option for users to apply Creative Commons licenses to Content hosted on those sites, or whether any Third Party Website or Third Party Content bears a Creative Commons license. You further acknowledge that Creative Commons (a) is not responsible or liable for any Third Party Websites or any Third Party Content, information or products made available at any Third Party Website; (b) has not reviewed any Third Party Websites or Third Party Content for accuracy, appropriateness, completeness or non infringement; (c) has not sponsored or otherwise endorsed Third Party Websites or Third Party Content; and (d) makes no representations or warranties whatsoever about any Third Party Websites or Third Party Content.

10. Participating in Our Community: Registered Users.

Registering for an account on any of the Websites, including but not limited to the OpenEd Site (located at http://opened.creativecommons.org) and the Creative Commons Wiki (located at http://wiki.creativecommons.org) is void where prohibited. Only persons who are over the age of majority in their jurisdiction (which typically is 18, but may be different in your jurisdiction) and fully competent to enter into the terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations and warranties set forth in the Terms and to abide by and comply with the Terms may register for an account and use the related Services; provided, however, that if you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction but over 13 years of age, you may join with the express permission of your parent or legal guardian. Any registration by, use of or access to the Services provided to Registered Users (defined below) by anyone (1) under the age of 13 or (2) under the age of majority in their jurisdiction but without parental or guardian permission, is unauthorized, unlicensed and a violation of these Master Terms. By registering for an account on any of the Websites or using the related Services, you represent and warrant that you (1) are the age of majority in your jurisdiction or, (2) are over the age of 13 and have the express permission of a legal guardian to become a Registered User and use Services made available to Registered Users, and you further agree to abide by all of the terms and conditions of these Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms.

Services offered to Registered Users are provided subject to these Master Terms and any Additional Terms specified on the relevant Website. Creative Commons reserves the right to modify or discontinue the accounts of Registered Users and related Services at any time. Creative Commons disclaims any and all liability to Registered Users and third parties in the event CC exercises its right to modify or discontinue user accounts or related Services.

Registration; Security. You agree to (a) provide accurate, current and complete information about you, if and as may be prompted by the registration process on the any of the Websites, (b) maintain the security of your password(s) and identification, (c) maintain and promptly update your registration information and any other information you provide to Creative Commons, and to keep it accurate and complete to, among other things, allow us to contact you, and (d) be fully responsible for all use of your account and for any actions that take place using your account. It is your responsibility to ensure that Creative Commons has up-to-date contact information for you. You may not set up an account or membership on behalf of another individual or entity unless you are authorized to do so.

No Membership in CC. As used in these Master Terms, “Registered User” means a person who has registered and obtained an account on one of our Websites. Becoming a Registered User or using any of the related Websites or Services does not and shall not be deemed to make you a member, shareholder or affiliate of Creative Commons for any purposes whatsoever, nor shall you have any of the rights of statutory members as defined in Sections 2(3) and 3 of Chapter 180 of the General Laws of Massachusetts.

Termination; Termination and Inactivation of User Accounts. Your participation as a Registered User and use the related Services terminates automatically upon your breach of any of these Master Terms or applicable Additional Terms.

In addition, Creative Commons may, at any time: (a) modify, suspend or terminate the operation of or access to your user account for any reason; (b) modify or change such Websites and Services and any applicable Terms and policies governing your user account and related Websites and Services for any reason; and (c) interrupt user accounts and related Websites and Services for any reason, all as Creative Commons deems appropriate in its discretion. Your access to your account, and use of the related Websites and Services may be terminated by you or by Creative Commons at any time and for any reason whatsoever, without notice.

In addition, Creative Commons reserves the right to delete and purge any account and all Content associated therewith following any prolonged period of inactivity, all as may be determined by Creative Commons in its complete discretion.

11. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY THE APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS OFFERS THE WEBSITES AND SERVICES AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE WEBSITES OR SERVICES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NONINFRINGEMENT. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS OR CONTENT CONTAINED ON THE WEBSITE OR SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT CC’S SERVERS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION REGARDING USE OR THE RESULT OF USE OF THE CONTENT IN TERMS OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE.

12. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.

EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW AND THEN ONLY TO THAT EXTENT, IN NO EVENT WILL CREATIVE COMMONS, ITS EMPLOYEES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, AFFILIATES OR AGENTS (“THE CREATIVE COMMONS PARTIES”) BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, ACTUAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF REVENUE OR INCOME, LOST PROFITS, PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR SIMILAR DAMAGES SUFFERED OR INCURRED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY THAT ARISE IN CONNECTION WITH THE WEBSITES OR SERVICES (OR THE TERMINATION THEREOF FOR ANY REASON), EVEN IF THE CREATIVE COMMONS PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

THE CREATIVE COMMONS PARTIES SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE WHATSOEVER IN ANY MANNER FOR ANY CONTENT POSTED ON THE WEBSITES OR SERVICES (INCLUDING CLAIMS OF INFRINGEMENT RELATING TO CONTENT POSTED ON THE WEBSITES OR SERVICES, FOR YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITES AND SERVICES, OR FOR THE CONDUCT OF THIRD PARTIES WHETHER ON THE WEBSITES, IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES OR OTHERWISE RELATING TO THE WEBSITES OR SERVICES.

13. Indemnification for Breach of Terms of Use.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Creative Commons Parties (defined above) from and against any and all loss, expenses, damages, and costs, including without limitation reasonable attorneys fees, resulting, whether directly or indirectly, from your violation of the Terms. You also agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Creative Commons Parties from and against any and all claims brought by third parties arising out of your use of any of the Websites or Services and the Content you make available via any of the Websites or Services by any means, including without limitation through a posting, a link, reference to Content, or otherwise.

14. Privacy Policy.

Creative Commons is committed to handling responsibly the information and data we collect through our Websites and Services and agrees to use your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy and the Terms. The Privacy Policy is hereby incorporated by reference into these Master Terms.

15. Trademarks.

The Websites and Services may contain trademarks, service marks, logos and other names that are the property of Creative Commons or such other party as indicated with respect to that name or icon. In the case of Creative Commons’ trademarks, logos and icons, these may only be used in accordance with our trademark policy (http://creativecommons.org/policies). The Trademark Policy is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms.

16. Copyright Complaints; DMCA Compliance.

Creative Commons respects the intellectual property rights of others, and we prohibit users of our Websites and Services from submitting, uploading, posting or otherwise transmitting any materials that violate another person’s intellectual property rights.

Creative Commons complies with the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). As required by the DMCA, a Designated Agent has been established with proper documentation sent to the US Copyright Office. For more information, please refer to our DMCA Notice and Takedown Procedure (http://creativecommons.org/dmca). Contact our designated agent to report alleged copyright infringement. The designated agent is:

Mike Linksvayer
dmca@creativecommons.org
171 Second Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: 415.369.8480
Fax: 415.278.9419

Additionally, it is our policy to terminate usage rights and any applicable user accounts of users we determine to be “repeat infringers” of others’ copyrights.

Content hosted on Third Party Websites is the responsibility of those Websites, and not of Creative Commons, regardless of whether the Content bears a Creative Commons license. If you are the copyright owner of Content hosted on a Third Party Website, and you have not authorized the use of your Content, please contact the administrator of the hosting Website directly to have the Content removed.

17. Termination of this Agreement.

These Master Terms and any Additional Terms will continue to apply until terminated by either you or Creative Commons as set out below. Your right to access and use the Websites and Services terminates automatically upon your breach of any of these Master Terms or Additional Terms that may apply to any of the Websites or Services.

Creative Commons may, at any time: (a) modify, suspend or terminate the operation of or access to any of the Websites or Services, or any portion of the Websites or Services, for any reason; (b) modify or change the Websites or Services, or any portion of the Websites or Services, and any Master Terms, Additional Terms and other policies governing the use of the Websites or Services, for any reason; (c) interrupt the operation of the Websites or Services, or any portion of the Websites or Services, for any reason, all as Creative Commons deems appropriate in its sole discretion.

Your access to, and use of, the Websites or Services may be terminated by you or by Creative Commons at any time and for any reason. Creative Commons will use reasonable efforts to notify you in advance about any material modification, suspension or termination by CC that is not caused by your breach of the Terms.

The disclaimer of warranties, the limitation of liability and the jurisdiction and applicable law provisions shall survive any termination. The license grants mentioned herein shall continue in effect subject to the terms of the applicable license. Your warranties and indemnification obligations shall survive any termination for one year.

18. Miscellaneous Terms.

These Master Terms and any Additional Terms are governed by and construed by the laws of the State of California, in the United States, exclusive of its choice of law rules. The parties agree that any disputes or proceedings between Creative Commons and you concerning these Master Terms, any Additional Terms, and/or any of the Websites or Services shall be brought in a federal or state court of competent jurisdiction sitting in the Northern District of California, and hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of such court. Either party’s failure to insist on or enforce strict performance of any of the Terms shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right. If any term or part of the Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by any law or regulation or final determination of a competent court or tribunal, that provision will be deemed severable and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. The parties agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Creative Commons as a result of these Master Terms, any Additional Terms, or your use of any of the Websites or Services. These Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Creative Commons relating to this subject matter and supersede all prior, contemporaneous and future communications (with the exception of future amendments to the Terms as made available by Creative Commons from time to time) between you and Creative Commons. A printed version of the Terms and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based on or relating to the Terms to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generating and maintained in printed form.

These Terms of Use are Effective as of March 3, 2010.

#####EOF##### Privacy Policy (pre 2018-09-13) - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Privacy Policy > Privacy Policy (pre 2018-09-13)

Privacy Policy (pre 2018-09-13)

1. Preamble

This Privacy Policy explains the collection, use, processing, transferring and disclosure of personal information by Creative Commons Corporation (“CC” or “Creative Commons”), a Massachusetts charitable organization.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and made part of Creative Commons Master Terms of Use (“Master Terms”) located at https://creativecommons.org/terms.

Unless otherwise noted on a particular website or service hosted by Creative Commons, this Privacy Policy applies to your use of all websites that Creative Commons operates. These include https://creativecommons.org, https://wiki.creativecommons.org, https://network.creativecommons.org, https://search.creativecommons.org, https://labs.creativecommons.org, http://openpolicynetwork.org, http://open4us.org, https://rightsback.org, http://teamopen.cc, and http://thepowerofopen.org, together with all other subdomains thereof, (collectively, the “Websites”). This Privacy Policy also applies to all products, information, and services provided through the Websites, including without limitation the license chooser, legal tools, the CC Login Services (defined below), and the CC Global Network community website (together with the Websites, the “Services”).

Please note that Creative Commons does not operate the website at http://ccmixter.org.

In addition, supplemental Privacy Policy terms (“Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms”) may apply to a particular Service, such as rightsback.org (https://rightsback.org/privacy-policy/). All such Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms will be accessible for you to read either within, or through your use of, that particular Service.

By accessing or using any of the Services, you are accepting and agreeing to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

2. Our Principles

Creative Commons has designed this policy to be consistent with the following principles:

  • Privacy policies should be human readable and easy to find.
  • Data collection, storage, and processing should be simplified as much as possible to enhance security, ensure consistency, and make the practices easy for users to understand.
  • Data practices should always meet the reasonable expectations of users.

3. Personal Information CC Collects and How it is Used

As used in this policy, “personal information” means information that would allow someone to identify you, including your name, email address, IP address, or other information from which someone could deduce your identity.

CC collects and uses personal information in the following ways:

Website and Fundraising Analytics: When you visit our Websites and use our Services, CC collects some information about your activities through tools such as Google Analytics. The type of information that we collect focuses on general information such as country or city where you are located, pages visited, time spent on pages, heat-map of visitors’ activity on the site, information about the browser you are using, etc. CC collects and uses this information pursuant to our legitimate interest in enhancing the security and utility of our Services. The information we gather and process is used in the aggregate to spot trends without deliberately identifying individuals, except in cases where you engage in a transaction with Creative Commons by donating money, purchasing merchandise, or buying a ticket for an event or program. In those cases, CC retains certain information about your visit to the Services pursuant to its legitimate interest in understanding its community of supporters for fundraising purposes, and this information is stored in connection with other personal information you provide to CC.

Note that you can learn about Google’s practices in connection with its analytics services and how to opt out of it by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. If you would like to opt out of CC’s fundraising analytics, please contact legal@creativecommons.org with your request.

Information from Cookies: We and our service providers (for example, Google Analytics as described above) may collect information using cookies or similar technologies for the purposes described above and below. Cookies are pieces of information that are stored by your browser on the hard drive or memory of your computer or other Internet access device.  Cookies may enable us to personalize your experience on the Services, maintain a persistent session, passively collect demographic information about your computer, and monitor advertisements and other activities. The Websites may use different kinds of cookies and other types of local storage (such as browser-based or plugin-based local storage).

Log-In Services: When you register to obtain a user account on any of the Services (any such person, a “Registered User”), including but not limited to the CCID service available at https://login.creativecommons.org/login, you will be asked to provide personal information to create your account and establish a password and profile. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in establishing and maintaining your account providing you with the features we provide Registered Users. We may use your email address to contact you regarding changes to this policy or other applicable policies. The name or nickname you provide in connection with your account may be used to attribute you in connection with any content you submit to any Service. In addition, whenever you use a CC Login Service to log into a Website or use the Services, our servers keep a plain text log of the Websites you visit and when you visit them.

Events: When you sign up for an event hosted or supported by Creative Commons, you will be asked to provide some personal information, including your name, email address, and other information as needed. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in organizing and running the relevant event. We may share your personal information with vendors, third party contractors, partner organizations, and volunteers for the purpose of organizing and running the event and related activities.

Emails and Newsletters: When you sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons or otherwise subscribe to one of our mailing lists, you will be asked to provide some personal information. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in providing news and updates to, and collaborating with, its supporters and volunteers.

Email Analytics: When you receive communications from CC after signing up for the CC newsletter, campaign updates, or other ongoing email communications from CC, we use analytics to track whether you open the mail, click on the links, and otherwise interact with what we send. You may opt out of this tracking by choosing to get plain-text emails from CC. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in understanding the interests of its community of supporters and volunteers in order to provide more relevant news and updates.

Donations: When you donate money to Creative Commons, purchase merchandise at https://store.creativecommons.org/, or pay for attendance at an event or participation in the CC Certificate program, you will be asked to provide personal information, including payment information. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in raising funds to ensure the sustainability of our nonprofit organization and, where applicable, to provide you with the merchandise, event, or program you purchased.

Creative Commons Global Network (“CCGN”) Membership: In connection with your application for CCGN membership, you will be required to provide certain personal information. CC collects and uses that personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in evaluating applications for CCGN membership and for helping to manage the CCGN once you are admitted.

In connection with your application you will be required to have two CCGN members provide information about you in order to vouch for you as a potential member of the CCGN. The personal information you provide with your application will be shared with the individuals you select to vouch for you, and with those reviewing your application, including the Membership Council whose members include people not employed by Creative Commons and who are located in various countries around the world.

If you vouch for someone’s application to the CCGN, your personal information will be shared with those reviewing the application, including the Membership Council, and if you provide a positive vouching statement, that statement will be shared with the applicant if and when they are admitted for membership.

If you are admitted to membership in the CCGN, you will be given a public profile page, editable by you, which will be pre-populated with certain information you provide with your application. Your name, areas of interest, images and other content you upload will be publicly displayed to anyone who visits the site while logged in with their CCID. All other personal information that you submit to your profile page, including your biographical information, email address, languages spoken, country of residence, social media account information or URL details will be displayed only to CC and CCGN members. Further, if you are admitted, your information will be transferred to and from the various fora that further the CC mission and enable the CCGN, including country chapters, platforms, working groups, and the Membership Council, for purposes of governance participation, activity interaction, and other purposes related to the mission, vision, and activities of CC.

If your CCGN membership application is rejected, the personal information that was collected from you and from the voucher will be deleted 21 days after CC sends out the decision, with the exception of the voucher’s vote or abstention (e.g., vouch for applicant / does not vouch for applicant).

Funding and Participation Opportunities: When you apply for a scholarship, grant, or fellowship from Creative Commons, or when you apply to be selected to participate in one of our other programs, CC will collect certain personal information from you in order to evaluate your application and process your funding as necessary. CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in providing funding and participation opportunities to its supporters and volunteers and in order to comply with its legal obligations under applicable law. We will share that information with the people who are designated to select participants in, and help manage, those programs, which may include people not employed by Creative Commons.

Other Voluntarily Provided Information: When you provide feedback to Creative Commons, sign a petition distributed by CC, or otherwise submit personal information to Creative Commons, CC collects and uses this personal information pursuant to its legitimate interest in better understanding our community of supporters and volunteers and in furtherance of the particular program or activity to which you provided feedback or other input.

License/Tool Selection . We use the personal information you provide to us as part of your selection of one of our licenses/tools to provide you the RDF, html, and the uniform resource locator that correspond to the license/tool you selected. Some older versions of the license chooser enable Creative Commons to send you this information via email. In those cases, your email address is expunged after this email has been sent. We may use all of this information to maintain usage data about our licenses/tools.

4. Retention of Personal Information

The majority of the personal information collected and used as explained in Section 3 above is aggregated and stored in a central database provided by a third party service provider. CC aggregates this data pursuant to its legitimate interest in having information stored in a single location to minimize complexity, increase consistency in internal practices, better understand its community of supporters and volunteers, and enhance the security of the data.  

CC erases the web browser logs described above on a regular, rolling basis.

5. Access to Your Personal Information

You are generally entitled to access personal information that Creative Commons holds and to have inaccurate data corrected or removed to the extent CC still maintains it. In certain circumstances, you also may have the right to object for legitimate reasons to the processing or transfer of personal information. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please write to legal@creativecommons.org explaining your request.

6. Disclosure of Your Personal Information

CC does not disclose personal information to third parties except as specified elsewhere in this policy and in the following instances:

  1. Creative Commons may share personal information with our contractors and service providers in order to undertake the activities described in Section 3.  
  2. We may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Master Terms and this Privacy Policy; (c) enforce our Charter, including the Code of Conduct and policies contained and incorporated therein, or (d) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order.

7. Security of Your Personal Information

Creative Commons has implemented reasonable physical, technical, and organizational security measures for personal information that Creative Commons processes against accidental or unlawful destruction, or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, in compliance with applicable law. However, no website can fully eliminate security risks. Third parties may circumvent our security measures to unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. If any data breach occurs, we will post a reasonably prominent notice to the Websites and comply with all other applicable data privacy requirements including, when required, personal notice to you if you have provided and we have maintained an email address for you.

The CC Login Services account systems have security risks in addition to those described above. Among other things, they are vulnerable to DNS attacks, and using any CC Login Service may increase the risk of phishing.

8. Children

The Services are not directed at children under the age of 13. Consistent with the U.S. federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without requiring parental consent. Our Master Terms specifically prohibit anyone using our Services from submitting any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age. Any person who provides their personal information to CC through the Services represents that they are 13 years of age or older.

9. Third Party Service Providers

Creative Commons uses many third party service providers in connection with the Services, including website hosting services, database management, credit card processing, and many more. Some of these service providers may place session cookies on your computer, and they may collect and store your personal information on our behalf in accordance with the data practices and purposes explained above in Section 3.

10. Third Party Sites

The Services may provide links to a wide variety of third party websites. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party websites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other websites.

11. Transferring Data to Other Countries

If you are accessing or using the Services in regions with laws governing data collection, processing, transfer and use, please note that when we use and share your data as specified in this policy, we may transfer your information to recipients in countries other than the country in which the information was originally collected. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information.

The Services are currently hosted in the United States and the United Kingdom, which means your personal information may be located on servers in the United States and/or the United Kingdom. The majority of contractors that Creative Commons is using as of the effective date of this Privacy Policy are located in the United States and in Canada, but this may change from time to time.

Data transferred from the European Union to the United States or outside the European Union will be made on the grounds of a certification to the E.U./U.S. Privacy Shield regime and/or a data transfer agreement based on the Standard Contractual Clauses approved of by the European Commission respectively, consistent with applicable data privacy requirements.

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will provide you with notice of such update through (at a minimum) a reasonably prominent notice on the Websites and Services, and will revise the Effective Date below. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting, using, processing and transferring the personal information we collect.

Effective Date: 25 May 2018. For an archive of previous CC privacy policies, see here.

#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International — CC BY-SA 4.0
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Dies ist eine allgemeinverständliche Zusammenfassung der Lizenz (die diese nicht ersetzt). Haftungsbeschränkung.

Sie dürfen:

  • Bearbeiten — das Material remixen, verändern und darauf aufbauen
  • und zwar für beliebige Zwecke, sogar kommerziell.
  • Der Lizenzgeber kann diese Freiheiten nicht widerrufen solange Sie sich an die Lizenzbedingungen halten.

Unter folgenden Bedingungen:

  • Namensnennung — Sie müssen angemessene Urheber- und Rechteangaben machen, einen Link zur Lizenz beifügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden. Diese Angaben dürfen in jeder angemessenen Art und Weise gemacht werden, allerdings nicht so, dass der Eindruck entsteht, der Lizenzgeber unterstütze gerade Sie oder Ihre Nutzung besonders.

  • Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen — Wenn Sie das Material remixen, verändern oder anderweitig direkt darauf aufbauen, dürfen Sie Ihre Beiträge nur unter derselben Lizenz wie das Original verbreiten.

  • Keine weiteren Einschränkungen — Sie dürfen keine zusätzlichen Klauseln oder technische Verfahren einsetzen, die anderen rechtlich irgendetwas untersagen, was die Lizenz erlaubt.

Hinweise:

  • Sie müssen sich nicht an diese Lizenz halten hinsichtlich solcher Teile des Materials, die gemeinfrei sind, oder soweit Ihre Nutzungshandlungen durch Ausnahmen und Schranken des Urheberrechts gedeckt sind.
  • Es werden keine Garantien gegeben und auch keine Gewähr geleistet. Die Lizenz verschafft Ihnen möglicherweise nicht alle Erlaubnisse, die Sie für die jeweilige Nutzung brauchen. Es können beispielsweise andere Rechte wie Persönlichkeits- und Datenschutzrechte zu beachten sein, die Ihre Nutzung des Materials entsprechend beschränken.
#####EOF##### Terms pre 2018-05-25 - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Terms of Use > Terms pre 2018-05-25

Terms pre 2018-05-25

Creative Commons Master Terms of Use

Effective as of 7 November 2017 (previously updated 22 December 2014 and 7 February 2017)

1. General Information Regarding These Terms of Use

Master terms: Welcome, and thank you for your interest in Creative Commons (“Creative Commons,” “CC,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). Unless otherwise noted on a particular site or service, these master terms of use (“Master Terms”) apply to your use of all of the websites that Creative Commons Corporation operates. These include http://creativecommons.org, http://wiki.creativecommons.org, http://openpolicynetwork.org, http://open4us.org, https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/, http://teamopen.cc, http://donate.creativecommons.org, http://thepowerofopen.org, https://network.creativecommons.org and http://creativecommons.net, together with all other subdomains thereof (the “ccNet Website”), (collectively, the “Websites”), as well as the products, information, and services provided through the Websites, including without limitation the license chooser, legal tools, the CC Login Services (defined below), and the CC Global Network community website (the “CCGN website”) (the CCGN websites together with the Websites, the “Services”). Creative Commons does not operate the website at http://ccmixter.org. Furthermore, this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of the websites operated by affiliates or chapters of Creative Commons unless expressly provided on those websites or any subdomains of the Websites. For purposes of these Master Terms, “CC Login Services” refers to CC’s implementation of the OpenID standard used on the ccNet Website, and the Central Authentication Service (CAS protocol) used on https://login.creativecommons.org

Additional terms: In addition to the Master Terms, your use of any Services may also be subject to specific terms applicable to a particular Service (“Additional Terms”). If there is any conflict between the Additional Terms and the Master Terms, then the Additional Terms apply in relation to the relevant Service.

Collectively, the Terms: The Master Terms, together with any Additional Terms, form a binding legal agreement between you and Creative Commons in relation to your use of the Services. Collectively, this legal agreement is referred to below as the “Terms.”

Human-readable summary of Sec 1: These terms, together with any special terms for particular websites, create a contract between you and Creative Commons. The contract governs your use of all websites operated by Creative Commons, unless a particular website indicates otherwise. These human-readable summaries of each section are not part of the contract, but are intended to help you understand its terms.

2. Your Agreement to the Terms

BY CLICKING “I ACCEPT” OR OTHERWISE ACCESSING OR USING ANY OF THE SERVICES (INCLUDING THE LICENSES, PUBLIC DOMAIN TOOLS, AND CHOOSERS), YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREED TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS. By clicking “I ACCEPT” or otherwise accessing or using any Services you also represent that you have the legal authority to accept the Terms on behalf of yourself and any party you represent in connection with your use of any Services. If you do not agree to the Terms, you are not authorized to use any Services. If you are an individual who is entering into these Terms on behalf of an entity, you represent and warrant that you have the power to bind that entity, and you hereby agree on that entity’s behalf to be bound by these Terms, with the terms “you,” and “your” applying to you, that entity, and other users accessing the Services on behalf of that entity.

Human-readable summary of Sec 2: Please read these terms and only use our sites and services if you agree to them.

3. Changes to the Terms

From time to time, Creative Commons may change, remove, or add to the Terms, and reserves the right to do so in its discretion. In that case, we will post updated Terms and indicate the date of revision. If we feel the modifications are material, we will make reasonable efforts to post a prominent notice on the relevant Website(s) and notify those of you with a current CC Login Service account via email. All new and/or revised Terms take effect immediately and apply to your use of the Services from that date on, except that material changes will take effect 30 days after the change is made and identified as material. Your continued use of any Services after new and/or revised Terms are effective indicates that you have read, understood, and agreed to those Terms.

Human-readable summary of Sec 3: These terms may change. When the changes are important, we will put a notice on the website. If you continue to use the sites after the changes are made, you agree to the changes.

Creative Commons is not a law firm, does not provide legal advice, and is not a substitute for a law firm. Sending us an email or using any of the Services, including the licenses, public domain tools, and choosers, does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship.

Human-readable summary of Sec 4: Some of us are lawyers, but we aren’t your lawyer. Please consult your own attorney if you need legal advice.

5. Content Available through the Services

Provided as-is: You acknowledge that Creative Commons does not make any representations or warranties about the material, data, and information, such as data files, text, computer software, code, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos, or other images (collectively, the “Content”) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Services. Under no circumstances is Creative Commons liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to: any infringing Content, any errors or omissions in Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, transmitted, linked from, or otherwise accessible through or made available via the Services. You understand that by using the Services, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, or objectionable.

You agree that you are solely responsible for your reuse of Content made available through the Services, including providing proper attribution. You should review the terms of the applicable license before you use the Content so that you know what you can and cannot do.

Licensing: CC-Owned Content: Other than the text of Creative Commons licenses, CC0, and other legal tools and the text of the deeds for all legal tools (all of which are made available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication), Creative Commons trademarks (subject to the Trademark Policy), and the software code, all Content on the Websites is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, unless otherwise marked. See the CC Policies page for more information.

CC-Owned Code: All of CC’s software code is free software; please check our code repository for the specific license on software you want to reuse.

Search Tools: On some of its Websites, Creative Commons provides website search tools, including CC Search, which return Content based on any license information our search tools are able to locate and interpret. Those search tools may return Content that is not CC licensed, and you should independently verify the terms of the license attached to any Content you intend to use.

Human-readable summary of Sec 5: We try our best to have useful information on our sites, but we cannot promise that everything is accurate or appropriate for your situation. Content on the site is licensed under CC BY 4.0 unless it says it is available under different terms. If you find content through a link on our websites, be sure to check the license terms before using it.

6. Content Supplied by You

Your responsibility: You represent, warrant, and agree that no Content posted or otherwise shared by you on or through any of the Services (“Your Content”), violates or infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights, breaches or conflicts with any obligation, such as a confidentiality obligation, or contains libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful material.

Licensing Your Content: You retain any copyright that you may have in Your Content. You hereby agree that Your Content: (a) is hereby licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and may be used under the terms of that license or any later version of a Creative Commons Attribution License, or (b) is in the public domain (such as Content that is not copyrightable or Content you make available under CC0), or (c) if not owned by you, (i) is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License or (ii) is a media file that is available under any Creative Commons license or that you are authorized by law to post or share through any of the Services, such as under the fair use doctrine, and that is prominently marked as being subject to third party copyright. All of Your Content must be appropriately marked with licensing (or other permission status such as fair use) and attribution information.

Removal: Creative Commons may, but is not obligated to, review Your Content and may delete or remove Your Content (without notice) from any of the Services in its sole discretion. Removal of any of Your Content from the Services (by you or Creative Commons) does not impact any rights you granted in Your Content under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Human-readable summary of Sec 6: We do not take any ownership of your content when you post it on our sites. If you post content you own, you agree it can be used under the terms of CC BY 4.0 or any future version of that license. If you do not own the content, then you should not post it unless it is in the public domain or licensed CC BY 4.0, except that you may also post pictures and videos if you are authorized to use them under law (e.g., fair use) or if they are available under any CC license. You must note that information on the file when you upload it. You are responsible for any content you upload to our sites.

7. Participating in the CCGN and Community: Registered Users

By registering for an account through any of the Services, including securing a CC Login Service account, or applying for membership to the CCGN, you represent and warrant that you are the age of majority in your jurisdiction (typically age 18). Services offered to registered users are provided subject to these Master Terms, the CC Privacy Policy https://creativecommons.org/privacy/, and any Additional Terms specified on the relevant Website(s), all of which are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms.

Registration: You agree to (a) only provide accurate and current information about yourself (though use of an alias or nickname in lieu of your legal name is encouraged), (b) maintain the security of your passwords and identification, (c) promptly update the email address listed in connection with your account to keep it accurate so that we can contact you, and (d) be fully responsible for all uses of your account. You must not set up an account on behalf of another individual or entity unless you are authorized to do so.

No Membership in CC: Creating a CC Login Service account or using any of the related Websites or Services, including becoming a member of the CCGN, does not and shall not be deemed to make you a member, shareholder or affiliate of Creative Commons for any purposes whatsoever, nor shall you have any of the rights of statutory members as defined in Sections 2(3) and 3 of Chapter 180 of the General Laws of Massachusetts or any other law.

Termination: Creative Commons reserves the right to modify or discontinue your account or your membership in the CCGN at any time for any reason or no reason at all.

Human-readable summary of Sec 7: Please do not register for an account on our sites unless you are 18 years old. CC has the right to end your account at any time. You are responsible for use of your account. And of course, please do not set up an account for someone else unless you have permission to do so. Setting up an account doesn’t make you a member of CC.

8. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to engage in any of the following activities:

1. Violating laws and rights:

  • You may not (a) use any Service for any illegal purpose or in violation of any local, state, national, or international laws, (b) violate or encourage others to violate any right of or obligation to a third party, including by infringing, misappropriating, or violating intellectual property, confidentiality, or privacy rights.

2. Solicitation:

  • You may not use the Services or any information provided through the Services for the transmission of advertising or promotional materials, including junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unsolicited or unwelcome solicitation.

3. Disruption:

  • You may not use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Services, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Services; including by (a) uploading or otherwise disseminating any virus, adware, spyware, worm or other malicious code, or (b) interfering with or disrupting any network, equipment, or server connected to or used to provide any of the Services, or violating any regulation, policy, or procedure of any network, equipment, or server.

4. Harming others:

  • You may not post or transmit Content on or through the Services that is harmful, offensive, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, defamatory, hateful or otherwise discriminatory, false or misleading, or incites an illegal act;

  • You may not intimidate or harass another through the Services; and, you may not post or transmit any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age on or through the Services.

5. Impersonation or unauthorized access:

  • You may not impersonate another person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity when using the Services;

  • You may not use or attempt to use another’s account or personal information without authorization; and

  • You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services, or the computer systems or networks connected to the Services, through hacking password mining or any other means.

Human-readable summary of Sec 8: Play nice. Be yourself. Don’t break the law or be disruptive.

9. CCGN

By submitting your application to become a member of the CCGN, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and, in the event you are accepted for membership, agree to be bound by the CCGN Charter, including the Code of Conduct and the policies referenced and incorporated therein. If you are admitted to the CCGN, these terms and the CCGN Charter shall govern your use of and participation in the CCGN, including your participation in any forum operated by the CCGN, such as platforms, chapters, and working groups. Note that your participation in such fora may also be governed by additional rules and guidelines for doing so.

In connection with applying for membership in the CCGN, you will be required to have members of the CCGN vouch for your admittance. You consent to CC contacting those individuals on your behalf and to those individuals providing information about you to CC that CC reasonably determines to be relevant for evaluating you as an applicant to the CCGN. If you are a member of the CCGN, are a member of the CCGN vouching for an applicant, you agree to abide by all vouching guidelines and rules published by CC, and will only provide accurate and truthful information that is responsive to Creative Commons’ inquiries, and you represent and warrant that you have permission to provide that information to CC. Please see CC’s Master Privacy Policy (link) for more information about how your information (as an applicant, member, and voucher) will be used.

10. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS OFFERS THE SERVICES (INCLUDING ALL CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES) AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE SERVICES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL BE ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY SERVERS USED BY CC ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION REGARDING USE OF THE CONTENT AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES IN TERMS OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE.

Human-readable summary of Sec 10: CC does not make any guarantees about the sites, services, or content available on the sites.

11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL CREATIVE COMMONS BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, ACTUAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF REVENUE OR INCOME, LOST PROFITS, PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR SIMILAR DAMAGES SUFFERED OR INCURRED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY THAT ARISE IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES (OR THE TERMINATION THEREOF FOR ANY REASON), EVEN IF CREATIVE COMMONS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE WHATSOEVER IN ANY MANNER FOR ANY CONTENT POSTED ON OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES (INCLUDING CLAIMS OF INFRINGEMENT RELATING TO THAT CONTENT), FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, OR FOR THE CONDUCT OF THIRD PARTIES ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES.

Certain jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply to you. IN THESE JURISDICTIONS, THE FOREGOING EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS WILL BE ENFORCED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

Human-readable summary of Sec 11: CC is not responsible for the content on the sites, your use of our services, or for the conduct of others on our sites.

12. Indemnification

To the extent authorized by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Creative Commons, its employees, officers, directors, affiliates, and agents from and against any and all claims, losses, expenses, damages, and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting directly or indirectly from or arising out of (a) your violation of the Terms, (b) your use of any of the Services, and/or (c) the Content you make available on any of the Services.

Human-readable summary of Sec 12: If something happens because you violate these terms, because of your use of the services, or because of the content you post on the sites, you agree to repay CC for the damage it causes.

13. Privacy Policy

Creative Commons is committed to responsibly handling the information and data we collect through our Services in compliance with our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms. Please review the Privacy Policy so you are aware of how we collect and use your personal information.

Human-readable summary of Sec 13: Please read our Privacy Policy. It is part of these terms, too.

14. Trademark Policy

CC’s name, logos, icons, and other trademarks may only be used in accordance with our Trademark Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms. Please review the Trademark Policy so you understand how CC’s trademarks may be used.

Human-readable summary of Sec 14: Please read our Trademark Policy. It is part of these terms, too.

Creative Commons respects copyright, and we prohibit users of the Services from submitting, uploading, posting, or otherwise transmitting any Content on the Services that violates another person’s proprietary rights.

To report allegedly infringing Content hosted on a website owned or controlled by CC, send a Notice of Infringing Materials as set out in CC’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Notice & Takedown Procedure.

Please note that Creative Commons does not host the Content made available through CC Search. You should contact the web site or service hosting the Content to have it removed.

Human-readable summary of Sec 15: Please let us know if you find infringing content on our websites.

16. Termination

By Creative Commons: Creative Commons may modify, suspend, or terminate the operation of, or access to, all or any portion of the Services at any time for any reason. Additionally, your individual access to, and use of, the Services may be terminated by Creative Commons at any time and for any reason.

By you: If you wish to terminate this agreement, you may immediately stop accessing or using the Services at any time.

Automatic upon breach: Your right to access and use the Services (including use of your CC Login System account) automatically upon your breach of any of the Terms. For the avoidance of doubt, termination of the Terms does not require you to remove or delete any reference to previously-applied CC legal tools from your own Content.

Survival: The disclaimer of warranties, the limitation of liability, and the jurisdiction and applicable law provisions will survive any termination. The license grants applicable to Your Content are not impacted by the termination of the Terms and shall continue in effect subject to the terms of the applicable license. Your warranties and indemnification obligations will survive for one year after termination.

Human-readable summary of Sec 16: If you violate these terms, you may no longer use our sites.

17. Miscellaneous Terms

Choice of law: The Terms are governed by and construed by the laws of the State of California in the United States, not including its choice of law rules.

Dispute resolution: The parties agree that any disputes between Creative Commons and you concerning these Terms, and/or any of the Services may only brought in a federal or state court of competent jurisdiction sitting in the Northern District of California, and you hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of such court.

  • If you are an authorized agent of a government or intergovernmental entity using the Services in your official capacity, including an authorized agent of the federal, state, or local government in the United States, and you are legally restricted from accepting the controlling law, jurisdiction, or venue clauses above, then those clauses do not apply to you. For any such U.S. federal government entities, these Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the laws of the United States of America (without reference to conflict of laws) and, in the absence of federal law and to the extent permitted under federal law, the laws of the State of California (excluding its choice of law rules).

No waiver: Either party’s failure to insist on or enforce strict performance of any of the Terms will not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right.

Severability: If any part of the Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by any law or regulation or final determination of a competent court or tribunal, that provision will be deemed severable and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.

No agency relationship: The parties agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Creative Commons as a result of the Terms or from your use of any of the Services.

Integration: These Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Creative Commons relating to this subject matter and supersede any and all prior communications and/or agreements between you and Creative Commons relating to access and use of the Services.

Human-readable summary of Sec 17: If there is a lawsuit arising from these terms, it should be in California and governed by California law. We are glad you use our sites, but this agreement does not mean we are partners.

Note about Reusing these Terms of Use.

The Creative Commons Terms of Use are dedicated to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication. You are free to use and adapt these Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms for your own purposes. However, please keep in mind that these Terms may not be completely suitable for your situation. Creative Commons strongly encourages you to seek the advice of your own attorney before repurposing these Terms on your own site.

#####EOF##### Privacy Policy (pre 2017-11-29) - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Privacy Policy > Privacy Policy (pre 2017-11-29)

Privacy Policy (pre 2017-11-29)

Master Privacy Policy and Express Consent

1. Preamble

This Master Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains the collection, use, processing, transferring and disclosure of “personal information” by Creative Commons Corporation (“CC” or “Creative Commons”), a Massachusetts charitable organization, and also contains an Express Consent that applies to those who use our Websites and Services (as defined below). This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and made part of Creative Commons Master Terms of Use (“Master Terms”) located at https://creativecommons.org/terms.

Unless otherwise noted on a particular website or service hosted by Creative Commons, this Privacy Policy applies to your use of all websites that Creative Commons operates. These include http://creativecommons.org, http://wiki.creativecommons.org, http://openpolicynetwork.org, http://open4us.org, https://rightsback.org, https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/, http://teamopen.cc, http://donate.creativecommons.org, http://thepowerofopen.org, https://network.creativecommons.org and http://creativecommons.net, together with all other subdomains thereof (the “ccNet Website”), (collectively, the “Websites”). This Privacy Policy also applies to all products, information, and services provided through the Websites, including without limitation the license chooser, legal tools, the CC Login Services (defined below), and the CC Global Network community website (the “CCGN website (together with the Websites, the “Services”). Creative Commons does not operate the website at http://ccmixter.org. Furthermore, this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of the websites operated by affiliates or chapters of Creative Commons unless expressly provided on those websites or any subdomains of the Websites. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “CC Login Services” refers to CC’s implementation of the OpenID standard used on the ccNet Website, and the Central Authentication Service (CAS protocol) used on https://login.creativecommons.org.

In addition, supplemental Privacy Policy terms (“Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms”) may apply to a particular Service, such as the Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine ( http://sciencecommons.org/resources/supplemental-privacy-policy/) and rightsback.org (https://rightsback.org/privacy-policy/). All such Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms will be accessible for you to read either within, or through your use of, that particular Service.

This Privacy Policy also explains our commitment to you with respect to our use, processing, transfer and disclosure of non personal browsing and site usage data that Creative Commons collects as the provider of the Services. “Non personal browsing and site usage data” refers to information that CC collects indirectly and automatically about your activities while visiting the Websites and using the Services through tools such as Google Analytics. The type of information that we collect focuses on general information such as general location such as country or city where you are located (not intentionally fine-grained location information), pages visited, heat-map of visitors’ activity on the site, information about the browser you are using, etc. In addition, whenever you use a CC Login Service to log into a Website or use the Services, our servers (which, again, may be hosted by a third party service provider) keep a plain text log of the websites you visit and when you visit them. CC does not deliberately track people over the Internet. See section 11, below for more information about this.

As used in this policy, “personal information” means information that would allow a party to identify you such as, for example, your name, address or location, telephone number, or email address or information from which a person could deduce your identity.

By accessing or using any of the Services, you are accepting and agreeing to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

2. Our Principles

Creative Commons is committed to handling responsibly the personal information and data we collect and process about you through our Services, whether personal information or non personal browsing and site usage data. We have designed our Privacy Policy consistent with the following principles (the “Principles”):

  • Privacy policies including provisions regarding data collection, processing and use, should be human readable, comprehensive, and easy to locate;

  • Only the minimum amount of personal information reasonably necessary to provide you with services should be processed, collected and maintained, and only for so long as reasonably needed or required, consistent with the principles of proportionality; and

  • Personal information you provide through our Services, or that we gather as a result of your use of our Services, should not be used for marketing or advertising purposes, nor should it be provided voluntarily (without your permission) to anyone else unless required.

3. Personal Information CC Collects

We may collect and process personal information through our Services, including without limitation:

  • in connection with your selection of one of our licenses or legal tools including CC0 or the Public Domain Mark;

  • when you provide us with your personal information such as by sending an email to us or signing up to receive updates from Creative Commons, including the CCGN;

  • when you subscribe to one of our email discussion lists;

  • when you donate money to us or purchase merchandise;

  • when you create a CC Login Service account;

  • when you apply for membership in the CC Global Network (the “CCGN”) or use the CCGN website;

  • if you respond to a membership applicant’s request that you be a voucher for his, her or its membership application; and

  • when you provide personal information in connection with your participation in any of the forums we make available through our Services.

Specifically, the following personal information at a minimum will be collected, processed and transferred as set forth below when you apply for membership in the CCGN:

  • Name;

  • Email address;

  • Brief bio (including links and references);

  • Brief summary of why you want to be a member of CCGN;

  • Areas of interest;

  • Languages;

  • Country in which you are located and/or with which you have voluntarily chosen to be associated;

  • URLs and links to social media;

  • A personal photo for your profile (if that feature is enabled and you voluntarily supply a photo);

  • Whether you are currently or have previously been associated with a CC affiliate institution or are or have previously been an individual CC affiliate;

  • Personal qualities that relate to your candidacy for membership; and

  • Any other information that you elect to provide or that CC may request.

Some of this personal information (along with your new user ID) will be used to create your CCGN member profile if your application is approved. Some of that information will be public (user ID, name and photo (if the feature is enabled and you have voluntarily supplied it), and some of that information will only be accessible by other CCGN members (email address, brief biography, languages, country in which you are located and/or with which you have voluntarily chosen to be associated, URLs and social media, and similar)).

If you are designated as a voucher by an individual or an institution applying for membership in the CCGN, the following personal information may be collected about you as a voucher:

  • Name;

  • Email address;

  • Information on how you know the candidate and your opinion (deciding in favor of vouching, as to why your favor the candidate);

  • Country in which you are located and/or with which you have voluntarily chosen to be associated;

  • URLs and links to social media; and

  • Any other information that the voucher elects to provide or that CC may request.

4. What CC Does with Personal Information

License/Tool Selection . We use the personal information you provide to us as part of your selection of one of our licenses/tools to provide you the RDF, html and the uniform resource locator that correspond to the license/tool you selected. Some older versions of the license chooser enable Creative Commons to send you this information via email. In those cases, your email address is expunged after this email has been sent. We may use all of this information to maintain license/tools usage data.

Emails and Newsletters . We use the personal information you provide to us when you send us emails or sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons in order to respond to your request – for example, to reply to your email or to send you communications about Creative Commons news and campaigns.

When you subscribe to updates from us, your email address is sent to and stored in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database (such as MailChimp, or CiviCRM) hosted on servers that can only be accessed by Creative Commons staff and contractors. CC may change CRM system(s) from time to time. When you subscribe to one of our email discussion lists, your name and email address is sent to and stored by (1) ibiblio.org ( http://www.ibiblio.org/), currently a collaboration between the Center for the Public Domain ( http://www.centerforthepublicdomain.org/) and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill  ( http://www.unc.edu/), (2) Creative Commons, and/or (3) another service with which Creative Commons has engaged to provide email support (such as a CRM system as mentioned above). Personal information submitted as part of our email discussion lists is used for the purpose of managing the discussion lists. Your name and email address typically will be visible to other list participants when you correspond on the list and to the general public in the discussion archives. All emails sent to the discussions lists are publicly archived.

Events: If you sign up for an event hosted or supported by Creative Commons, we may share your personal information with vendors and third party contractors solely for the purpose of organizing and running the event. Additionally, if you sign up to participate in a CC-sponsored event, including without limitation a CC Global Summit, you may be asked to enter your name, address, and account information in connection with your payment for attendance. Currently, CC uses Stripe for payment, but CC may use additional methods for payment. You affirmatively consent and agree that CC may use and process your information in connection with the use and processing of your attendance with any such third party payment processors for purposes of processing your payment. Your information is subject to the privacy policies of such third party websites, and you affirmatively consent to the transfer of your information to those websites and service providers. CC is not be responsible for their handling, processing and use of your information.

Donations . When you donate money, goods or services to us, purchase merchandise via our support page, or pay for attendance at an event (including the CC Global Summits), your personal information will be handled depending on which option you choose.

If you purchase merchandise from the Creative Commons store ( http://store.creativecommons.org/), your personal information will be used for the purpose of sending you the items you purchased. If you sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons when you check out from the store, we will use your personal information to send you communications about Creative Commons news and campaigns.

You may donate money to Creative Commons directly or through a variety of on-line payment sites, currently including PayPal, JustGive.org, Good Search, Network for Good, and Mission Fish, among others. When you use any of those websites and services to donate to CC, your personal information is sent to, processed by and stored by those websites in accordance with their respective privacy policies and terms of use. You should read and understand the privacy policy and terms of use of any website you use to donate to Creative Commons. When you donate to Creative Commons directly, we use your personal information to process your donation. When you donate as part of one of CC’s fundraising campaigns, your name will be published on our “supporters page” unless you request otherwise. If you sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons when you provide your donation, we will use your personal information to send you communications about Creative Commons news and campaigns.

5. ccNet Website

This service is no longer accepting new accounts, but if you previously created a ccNet account, you may still access and use it. When you joined ccNet, you provided personal information to create your account and establish a password and profile, and to create an OpenID. We use that personal information to establish and maintain your accounts, provide you with the features we provide for account holders, to act as your OpenID service provider, and for the purpose of contacting you about upcoming news and events relevant to Creative Commons.

By joining ccNet, you were also given a public profile page where you can voluntarily post personal information for public viewing. The information that you submit on your public profile page, including but not limited to information you provide in the field “Your CC Story” and any photograph or image of yourself you choose to upload, is posted by you at your discretion (although subject to ccNet’s Master Terms of Use). You should not post photos or images of other persons without their express consent. The information you publish on your public profile page, including your personal information, may be used by anyone who views that information for any lawful purpose, with the exception of the text you insert in the “Your CC Story” field and any photograph or image of yourself that you upload, which if you choose to provide in either case must be licensed under and becomes subject to the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, as stated on the Edit Profile page. CC may use the personal and non personal browsing and site usage date (as described above) you provide in your public profile, including the text in the “Your CC Story” field (subject to the terms of that license), to promote the mission of Creative Commons.

6. CC Global Network (CCGN)

In connection with your application to the CCGN or use of the CCGN website, you will be required to provide certain personal information. We use and process that personal information to evaluate your application, establish and maintain your account, provide you with the features we provide for account holders, and for the purpose of contacting you about upcoming news and events relevant to Creative Commons and the CCGN. In connection with your application you will be required to have one or more members of the CCGN provide information about you in order to vouch for you as a potential member of the CCGN. You hereby consent to those individuals providing such information about you that we reasonably request. The personal information provided in connection with your application to the CCGN, whether by you or a member of the CCGN vouching as you voluntarily request on your behalf, will be used by the CCGN including its Membership Council (interim and/or permanent) and Creative Commons to evaluate your application.

If you are admitted to the CCGN you will be given a public profile page where you can voluntarily post personal information for public viewing. Certain personal information that you submit to or make available on your profile page, including your name, areas of interest, images and other content you upload may be used by anyone who views that information for any lawful purpose. Additional personal information that you submit to your profile page, including your biographical information, languages spoken, country of residence or country with which you wish to be associated or similar, social media account information or URL details may be viewed and used by other members of the CCGN. Further, if you are admitted, your information will be transferred to and from the various fora that further the CC mission and enable the CCGN, including chapters, the CCGN, platforms and working groups, HQ and the Membership Council for purposes of governance participation, activity interaction, and other purposes related to the mission, vision and activities of CC.

Whether your CCGN membership application is rejected or accepted, the personal information that was collected from you and from the voucher will be deleted after 21 days of CC’s sending out the decision, with the exception of the voucher’s decision (e.g., vouch for applicant / does not vouch for applicant) and your then-existing or prior affiliation(s) as or with a CC affiliate.

Information provided by vouchers related to your identity and decision (i.e., whether or not you (the voucher) vouched for the applicant) will be retained.

See sections 15 and 22 below for additional information.

7. Participating in the CCGN

Registered Users . When you register to obtain a user account on any of the Services (any such person, a “Registered User”), including but not limited to a CC Login Service or the CCGN website, you may be asked to provide personal information to create your account and establish a password and profile. We generally encourage you to use an alias or nickname if you are not comfortable providing your legal name. The name or nickname you provide in connection with your account may be used to attribute you in connection with any content you submit to any Service. We also use that personal information to establish and maintain your account, to provide you with the features we provide Registered Users, and to email you regarding changes to this policy or other applicable policies. If you sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons when you create your account, we will use your personal information to send you communications about Creative Commons news and campaigns.

Any other personal information that we may collect which is not described specifically in this Privacy Policy will only be collected, processed, transferred and used in accordance with the Principles and as stated herein.

8. Disclosures of Personal Information

In general, it is not Creative Commons’ practice to disclose personal information to third parties other than as made available on the Services. Except as otherwise set forth herein or for providing you with attribution using your CC Login Service name or nickname (as you have elected) in connection with your CC-licensed works, we may share your personal information in the following instances:

  1. First, Creative Commons may share personal information with our contractors and service providers in order to maintain, enhance, or add to the functionality of the Services, or to organize and run an event you signed up to attend.

  2. Second, we may disclose your personal information you provide in connection with your application to the CCGN or use of the CCGN website, including to those individuals who you select to vouch for your acceptance as a member of the CCGN and those reviewing your application, and the Membership Counsel (interim and/or permanent) whose members are located in various countries (such as Colombia, El Salvador, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Argentina, South Korea, Poland, Ghana, Brazil, United States, Japan, Netherlands, Chile, and Guatemala), for the purpose of making a decision about your application.

  3. Third, if you are a voucher, we may disclose your personal information to (a) the Membership Council (interim and/or permanent), for the purpose of confirming the voucher’s identity and for making a decision about the applicant, and (b) the applicant should the applicant decide to invoke his or her right of access and correction as discussed below in sections 21 and 22.

  4. Fourth, we may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Master Terms and this Privacy Policy; (c) enforce our Charter [link] including the Code of Conduct and policies contained and incorporated therein, (d) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order; or (e) address legitimate interests pursued by Creative Commons or by a third party (except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child) and ensure our compliance with applicable laws.

For the purposes listed in section 3 above, Creative Commons may transfer your personal information to Creative Commons affiliates, members, chapters, and third parties that provide products or services to Creative Commons. The majority of consultants that Creative Commons is using as of the effective date of this Privacy Policy were located in the United States and in Canada, but this may change from time to time. For example, Creative Commons has engaged a third-party Internet service to provide hosting services for some of our Websites based in the United Kingdom.

When personal information is directly transferred to an affiliate, member, Chapter or a third party provider located in a country including those listed above, that may not provide a level of protection equivalent to the laws in your jurisdiction, Creative Commons will exercise appropriate due diligence in the selection of such recipients, and require that these recipients maintain adequate technical and organizational security measures to safeguard the personal information and process the personal information only as instructed by Creative Commons and for no other purposes. See also section 20 below.

9. Security of Personal Information Collected via the Services

Creative Commons has implemented reasonable physical, technical, and organizational security measures for personal information that Creative Commons processes, transfers, stores and controls against accidental or unlawful destruction, or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, in compliance with applicable law. However, no website can fully eliminate security risks. Third parties may circumvent our security measures to unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. If any data breach occurs, we will post a reasonably prominent notice to the Websites and comply with all other applicable data privacy requirements including, when required, personal notice to you if you have provided and we have maintained an email address for you.

The CC Login Services account systems have security risks in addition to those described above. Among other things, they are vulnerable to DNS attacks, and using any CC Login Service may increase the risk of phishing. See “More about CC Login Services” below and other information about those services throughout this Privacy Policy.

10. Information from Cookies and Similar Technologies

We and our service providers (for example, Google Analytics as described in section 1 above) may collect information using cookies or similar technologies for the purposes described above and below. Cookies are pieces of information that are stored by your browser on the hard drive or memory of your computer or other Internet access device.  Cookies may enable us to personalize your experience on the Services, maintain a persistent session, passively collect demographic information about your computer, and monitor advertisements and other activities.  The Websites may use different kinds of cookies and other types of local storage (such as browser-based or plugin-based local storage).

11. Non Personal Browsing and Site Usage Information We Process and Collect

When you use the Services, our servers (which may be hosted by a third party service provider) may process and collect information indirectly and automatically (through, for example, the use of your “IP address”) about your activities while visiting the Websites and using our Services, and information about the country you are located in and the browser you are using. In addition, we use website and application analytics services provided by third parties that use cookies and other similar technologies to collect information about the use of the Websites and Services, and to report trends, without identifying individual visitors (this is all “non personal browsing and site usage information” for purposes of this Privacy Policy and as described in section 1, above). The third parties that provide us with these services may also collect information about your use of third-party websites. You can learn about Google’s practices in connection with this information collection and how to opt out of it by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Whenever you use your CCGN website account or a CC Login Service, our servers (which, again, may be hosted by a third party service provider) keep a log of the websites you visit and when you visit them. We may share the non personal browsing information we collect with our third party service providers in connection with the services they provide.

12. No Linking

We do not intentionally link browsing information or information from our CC Login Services server logs to the personal information you submit to us. We use this information for internal purposes only, such as to help understand how the Services are being used, to improve our Services, and for systems administration purposes. CC may use a third party analytics provider (for example, Google Analytics as discussed in section 1 above) to help us collect and analyze non personal browsing and site usage information through operation of our Services for those same purposes.

In connection with your use of the Services, you may tag content, create lists of favorite content, and do other things to personalize your experience. You should not, however, tag other persons or post photographs or other images or likenesses without that other person’s express consent. This information will be retained by Creative Commons in connection with the relevant CC Login Service.

13. No Selling or Sharing

Except in the unique situations identified in this Privacy Policy, Creative Commons does not sell or otherwise voluntarily provide the non personal browsing information we collect and process about you or your website usage to third parties.

14. No Access; More about CC Login Services

As a provider of CC Login Services, CC could access your web-based account tied to such services, and could log in on behalf of any of Registered Users to any of the accounts they have accessed using the CC Login Services. Creative Commons will never use this technical login ability for any purpose except as required by law.

15. Data Retention

CC generally discards non personal browsing information from our CC Login Services and CCGN website once we have used the information for the limited purposes noted above under “No Linking” and described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy. Nevertheless, we may, but are not obligated to, retain certain data in connection with routine information technology backups and for archival purposes.

When a CCGN membership application is rejected or accepted, the personal information that was collected from the applicant and from the voucher will be deleted after 21 days of CC’s sending out the decision, with the exception of the voucher’ decision (e.g., vouch for applicant / does not vouch for applicant) and your then-existing or prior affiliation(s) as or with a CC affiliate. Personal information submitted by someone acting as a voucher and collected for the purpose of providing a voucher for an applicant that is rejected or accepted will be deleted after 21 days from the time CC sends out its decision, with the exception of the voucher’s actual decision (i.e., whether or not he or she vouched for the applicant, but none of the statement(s) that he or she may have provided).

16. Notice

Any other non-personal information that we collect which is not described specifically in this Privacy Policy will only be collected, processed, transferred and used in accordance with the Principles.

17. Reorganization or Spin-Offs

Creative Commons may transfer some or all of your personal and/or non personal browsing information to a third party as a result of a reorganization, spin-off, or similar transaction. Upon such transfer, the acquirer’s privacy policy will apply. In such event, Creative Commons will use reasonable efforts to notify you and to ensure that at the time of the transaction the acquirer’s privacy policy complies with the Principles and with all applicable laws.

18. Children

The Services are not directed at children under the age of 13. Consistent with the U.S. federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without requiring parental consent. Our Master Terms specifically prohibit anyone using our Services from submitting any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age. Any person who provides their personal information to CC through the Services represents that they are 13 years of age or older.

19. Third-Party Sites

The Services may include links to other websites. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party sites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other websites.

20. Special Note to International Users

If you are accessing or using the Services in regions with laws governing data collection, processing, transfer and use, please note that we may transfer your information to recipients in countries other than the country in which the information was originally collected. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information. The Services are hosted in the United States and the United Kingdom. Please note that your personal information may be located on servers in the United States and/or the United Kingdom. By providing your personal information and by checking all required boxes when you apply for membership in the CCGN or otherwise access and use our Services or Websites, you expressly consent to the use of your personal information for the uses identified above in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

The personal information you provide to Creative Commons when you apply for CCGN membership will be shared with the members of the Membership Council (interim and/or permanent) for the purpose of making a decision on your application. These members may be located in countries other than the country in which the information was originally collected, for instance Colombia, El Salvador, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Argentina, South Korea, Poland, Ghana, Brazil, United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Chile, and Guatemala. The data protection laws of such countries might not provide a level of protection equivalent to the laws in your jurisdiction. Creative Commons will exercise appropriate due diligence in the selection of such members, and require that these members maintain adequate technical and organizational security measures to safeguard the personal information and process the personal information only as instructed by Creative Commons and for no other purposes. Data transferred from the European Union to the United States or outside the European Union will be made on the grounds of a certification to the E.U./U.S. Privacy Shield regime and/or a data transfer agreement based on the Standard Contractual Clauses approved of by the European Commission respectively, consistent with applicable data privacy requirements.

21. Accuracy of Personal Information Collected

Creative Commons intends to keep personal information accurate and up-to-date. We also retain personal information no longer than is necessary to carry out the purposes described in section 3 above, or as required by law. If changes need to be made to your personal information, please notify us (as identified below, see the “Questions” section) right away. If you inform us of changes or we otherwise become aware of any factual inaccuracies in personal information, we will promptly make changes as appropriate. You also have the option to update some of your personal information yourself via your Creative Commons account or profile if you have one.

22. Access to Personal Information

Along with all other rights granted to you under applicable laws, you may at any time request to be informed of personal information that Creative Commons holds. If you wish to access such personal information, you should apply in writing to Creative Commons (as identified below, see the “Questions” section). You are generally entitled to access personal information that Creative Commons holds and to have inaccurate data corrected or removed to the extent CC still maintains it. In certain circumstances, you also may have the right to object for legitimate reasons to the processing or transfer of personal information.

If you applied for CCGN membership or acted as a voucher for an applicant, you are generally entitled to access the personal information that Creative Commons holds at the time of your request. However, with the exception of the voucher’ decision (e.g., vouch for applicant / does not vouch for applicant) and the applicant’s past affiliation(s) with a CC affiliate institution, please note that such data will only be retained by Creative Commons for 21 days of CC’s sending out the decision, as described in section 15 above. Thereafter, any other personal information related to the membership application process, including any vouchers’ personal statements or submissions, will be deleted.

23. Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will provide you with notice of such update through (at a minimum) a reasonably prominent notice on the Websites and Services, and will revise the Effective Date below. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting, using, processing and transferring the personal information we collect.

24. Using this Privacy Policy for Your Own Purposes

The text (but not trademarks, including CC’s name, branding, and look-feel of this site) of this Privacy Policy is dedicated to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication. You are free to use and adapt this Privacy Policy and any applicable Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms for your own purposes but not in connection with the Services of Websites. These terms are provided AS-IS and without any warranty of any type whatsoever (see the text of the CC0 for more). Keep in mind that this Privacy Policy may not be suitable for your situation. Creative Commons strongly encourages you to seek the advice of your own attorney before repurposing this Privacy Policy on your own site. CC is not your attorney, and this is not legal advice.

25. Questions?

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at legal@creativecommons.org.

Effective Date: 7 November 2017. For an archive of previous CC privacy policies, see here.

#####EOF##### Open Access - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Program areas > Open Access

Open Access

Open access literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.

There’s an incredible amount of scientific research conducted at universities and institutions around the world. Historically, the findings of this research have been published in scholarly journals. However, access to this research is typically restricted–granted only to those who are granted permission via their university affiliation, or by purchasing access to individual articles. This is fundamentally problematic, for many reasons: 

  1. Governments provide most of the funding for research—hundreds of billions of dollars annually—and public institutions employ a large portion of all researchers.
  2. Researchers publish their findings without the expectation of compensation. Unlike other authors, they hand their work over to publishers without payment, in the interest of advancing human knowledge.
  3. Through the process of peer review, researchers review each other’s work for free.
  4. Once published, those that contributed to the research (from taxpayers to the institutions that supported the research itself) have to pay again to access the findings. Though research is produced as a public good, it isn’t available to the public who paid for it.

Open access publishing is a solution to these problems. Open access literature is defined as “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.” The recommendations of the Budapest Open Access Declaration—including the use of liberal licensing (such as CC BY)— is widely recognized in the community as a means to make a work truly open access.

The existing system for producing and distributing publicly funded research articles is expensive and doesn’t take advantage of the possibilities of innovations like open licensing. Without a free-flowing system, access to the results of scientific research is limited to institutions that are able to commit to hefty journal subscriptions — paid for year after year — which don’t allow for broad redistribution, or repurposing for activities such as text and data mining without additional permissions from the rightsholder. This closed system limits the impact on the scientific and scholarly community and progress is slowed significantly.

closed_research

When funding cycles for research include open license requirements for publications, increased access and opportunities for reuse extends the value of research funding. As an example, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy requires the published results of all NIH-funded research to be deposited in PubMed Central’s repository, the peer-reviewed manuscript immediately, and the final journal article within twelve months of publication. Similarly, the directive issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy mandates that federal agencies with more than $100 million in research expenditures must make the results of their research publicly available within one year of publication, and better manage the resultant data supporting their results. These policies utilize aspects of the optimized cycle below, and are a step in the right direction for making better use of public funding for research articles.

optimised_research

Open access policies and practices are being adopted in a variety of different settings. Above and beyond open licensing policies for publicly funded research, philanthropic foundations, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations are using open licensing to share the research that they–or their grantees–are creating. Open access journals are publishing Creative Commons-licensed research, which promotes access and re-use of scientific and scholarly research.

#####EOF##### Bassel Khartabil Fellowships and Memorial Fund - Creative Commons
#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
This page is available in the following languages: Languages
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Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • for any purpose, even commercially.
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

  • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International — CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
This page is available in the following languages: Languages
cc logo

Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
#####EOF##### Contact - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Contact

Contact

Many questions are answered in our FAQ and you can find out more about our global affiliate network here. If you are unable to find your answer via our FAQ or website please be in touch regarding our website, general information or press at: info@creativecommons.org.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Mailing Address and phone number

Please note: we are a distributed team working all over the world. We don’t have an office, but if you need to mail us correspondence, please send it to:

Creative Commons
PO Box 1866
Mountain View, CA 94042
USA

Or if you would like to mail us a donation, please send it to this address instead:

Creative Commons Corporation
P. O. Box 741107
Los Angeles, CA 90074-1107

Our phone number is:

+1415-429-6753

The best way to contact us is to write to info@creativecommons.org.

Reporting bugs and problems with a Creative Commons website, license, wiki or project webpage

You can write to us using the form above, or you can file an issue on GitHub.

 

Get Involved

There are numerous ways to connect with CC. Learn more

Copyright infringement notifications

If you have reason to believe that any material or activity on a site controlled or operated by Creative Commons (such as creativecommons.org or wiki.creativecommons.org is infringing of the right(s) owned by you or someone else, for whom you have authority to act, please follow our DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure.

Complaints about financial impropriety and other misconduct

As a nonprofit entity, the integrity of CC’s financial information is paramount. We have adopted Codes of Conduct that prohibit financial impropriety and protect whistle blowers who bring such irregularities to our attention. Additionally, we take seriously other misconduct that may involve the violation of our policies including, but not limited to, harassment.

If you are aware of any conduct prohibited by law or by our policies, you are encouraged to make a complaint, anonymously if you wish, to the members of the company’s Audit Committee. The email address for such complaints is audit@creativecommons.org which will forward your message automatically to the members of the Audit Committee. The Committee members are identified on our Board page. You may also submit a complaint by post or fax to the attention of “Audit Committee” at our Mountain View address.

Creative Commons is a Massachusetts-chartered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable corporation. For more information, see the corporate charter, by-laws, most recent tax return and most recent audited financial statement.

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#####EOF##### What's New in 4.0 - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work > Licensing considerations > What’s New in 4.0

What’s New in 4.0

Creative Commons worked for more than two years to develop the next generation of CC licenses — the version 4.0 CC license suite. The new licenses are more user-friendly and more internationally robust than ever before.

We made dozens of improvements to the licenses. Most will go unnoticed by many CC licensors and licensees, but some of them deserve particular attention.

For a much more in-depth rundown of the decisions reflected in 4.0, visit the 4.0 page on the Creative Commons wiki.

A more global license

In the past six years, Creative Commons has worked with hundreds of volunteers around the world – literally, some of the best minds in copyright law and open licensing on the planet – to translate and adapt the 3.0 and earlier licenses to local laws in over 60 jurisdictions (what we call “porting”). In the process, we’ve learned a lot about how our licenses work internationally and how they’re impacted by the nuances of copyright law in various jurisdictions.

We drew on this experience in the process of developing 4.0. We’ve worked closely with our wide international network of affiliates and countless other experts and stakeholders to make 4.0 the most internationally enforceable set of CC licenses to date. The 4.0 licenses are ready-to-use around the world, without porting.

The new licenses have improved terminology that’s better understood worldwide. With the release of 4.0, we’re also introducing official translations of the CC licenses, so that users of CC-licensed material around the world can read and understand the complete licenses in their local languages.

Rights outside the scope of copyright

Other rights beyond copyright can complicate the reuse of CC-licensed material. To the extent that those rights are not addressed directly in a copyright license, the situation for users of works can be even more confusing. Version 4.0 addresses this challenge through an open-ended but carefully tailored license grant that identifies categories of rights that could (if not licensed) interfere with reuse of the material. Accounting for these and other unenumerated rights will more fully enable users of CC-licensed works to use the work as they expect and as intended by licensors.

In particular, the fact that sui generis database rights are not explicitly covered by the 3.0 unported licenses has led to confusion in jurisdictions that recognize those rights. Version 4.0 removes any doubt, pulling applicable sui generis rights squarely within the scope of the license unless explicitly excluded by the licensor. It also allows database providers to use the CC licenses to explicitly license those rights.

The 4.0 license suite uniformly and explicitly waives moral rights held by the licensor where possible to the limited extent necessary to enable reuse of the content in the manner intended by the license. Publicity, privacy, and personality rights held by the licensor are expressly waived to the same limited extent. While many understand these rights to be waived when held by the licensor in 3.0 and earlier versions, version 4.0’s treatment makes the intended outcome clear.

Common-sense attribution

Version 4.0 includes a slight change to attribution requirements, designed to better reflect accepted practices. The licenses explicitly permit licensees to satisfy the attribution requirement with a link to a separate page for attribution information. This was already common practice on the internet and possible under earlier versions of the licenses, and Version 4.0 alleviates any uncertainty about its use.

Enabling more anonymity, when desired

Version 3.0 included a provision allowing a licensor to request that a licensee remove the attribution from an adaptation, if she did not want her name associated with it. Version 4.0 expands that provision to apply not only to adaptations but also to verbatim reproductions of a work. Licenses now account specifically for situations where licensors wish to disassociate themselves from uses of their works they object to, even if their work hasn’t been modified or published in a collection with other works.

30-day window to correct license violations

All CC licenses terminate when a licensee breaks their terms, but under 4.0, a licensee’s rights are reinstated automatically if she corrects a breach within 30 days of discovering it. The cure period in version 4.0 resembles similar provisions in some other public licenses and better reflects how licensors and licensees resolve compliance issues in practice. It also assures users that provided they act promptly, they can continue using the CC-licensed work without worry that they may have lost their rights permanently.

Increased readability

The 4.0 license suite is decidedly easier to read and understand than prior versions, not to mention much shorter and better organized. The simplified license structure and use of plain language whenever possible increases the likelihood that licensors and reusers will understand their rights and obligations. This improves enforceability of the licenses and reduces confusion and disagreement about how the licenses operate.

Clarity about adaptations

The BY and BY-NC 4.0 licenses are clearer about how adaptations are to be licensed, a source of confusion for some under the earlier versions of those licenses. These licenses now clarify that you can apply any license to your contributions you want so long as your license doesn’t prevent users of the remix from complying with the original license. While this is how 3.0 and earlier versions are understood, the 4.0 licenses make it abundantly clear and will help remixers in understanding their licensing obligations.

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#####EOF##### Sir John Daniel of the Commonwealth of Learning: Open Education and Policy - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > Sir John Daniel of the Commonwealth of Learning: Open Education and Policy

Sir John Daniel of the Commonwealth of Learning: Open Education and Policy

Timothy Vollmer

July 27, 2011

Sir John Daniel has been working in open education from its earliest days. “Openness is in my genes,” he says. Sir John is President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning, or COL. COL is an intergovernmental organization comprised of 54 member states. The overarching focus area for COL is “learning for development.” It aims to help its member nations—especially developing countries—use technology and develop new approaches to expand and approve learning at all levels. Sir John’s first interaction at COL happened over 20 years ago, when he chaired its planning committee. At that time, he was president of Canada’s Laurentian University. He went from there to lead the Open University in the UK, and then served as head of Education at UNESCO. Sir John’s colleague, Dr. Venkataraman Balaji, is Director of Technology and Knowledge Management, and led the efforts in crafting COL’s recent Open Educational Resources policy.

What were the primary motivations in developing an OER policy at COL? What hurdles (legal, social, cultural) did you have to overcome, both within the organization and among the member states?

We’re in the open business, so it made sense to communicate a formal open policy prominently on our website. It really wasn’t a problem, and there were few hurdles inside COL. We drafted the policy, it went through a few iterations within our staff, and then we adopted it. That said, we should be clear that we didn’t take this policy to the member states for review. We’re a small organization, and we do not have a general assembly of our membership. So, we didn’t have to wade through the politics of getting all the states to sign on. However, we didn’t develop the OER policy just pat ourselves on our back. We want to show the world that supporting open education is how we all should behave these days.

The work of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) is very important, but to the outside observer it is sometimes not apparent what IGOs do. What does COL do to “encourage and support governments and institutions to establish supportive policy frameworks to introduce practices relating to OER”?

If I may be so bold, I think your question reflects an American bias. The United States and other large, powerful countries tend to operate bilaterally. Smaller countries prefer the facilitative, collaborative approach of working via intergovernmental organizations. UNESCO is the extreme example, where 193 countries operate democratically, and everyone’s voice is at least in principle equal. When I worked at UNESCO, I was surprised how seriously the member states took the recommendations that were developed. They trust that sort of process more than directives that come at them bilaterally.

In general, the IGO process aims to get countries to work together to do things they cannot do separately. One example is a virtual university for small states within the Commonwealth. Since two-thirds of the 54 member states are nations with populations of 2 million or less, they have fewer resources to spend on content creation. You can imagine when the dot com boom came along the small states were worried how they could come to terms with all the potential benefits (and address the challenges) of this rapidly changing digital, networked world. So their ministers of education looked at the challenge and said, “if we can’t crack it individually, why not crack it collectively?” COL helped them start a ‘virtual university’, which is not a new institution but a collaborative network where countries and institutions can work together to produce course materials as OER that they can all adapt and use. This virtual university has developed curriculum in various areas, such as a diploma in sustainable agriculture for small states. You can imagine that agricultural practices in a place like the atolls of the Maldives are very different than agriculture in the volcanic islands of Dominica. However, developing a vanilla version of the curriculum and then allowing each region to tailor the resources to the specifics of their own agricultural ecosystem has proved much more efficient than each state starting from scratch. A condition of participating in the virtual university is that anything you create must be released as OER.

COL has chosen the CC BY-SA license for its own materials. Can you describe how the organization decided upon this license for its resources?

Well, our policy simply says COL will release its own materials under the most feasible open license, which includes the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. We understand why MIT OCW adopted a noncommercial license for its materials—they were the first to do it and didn’t know what was going to happen. But now, we encourage people to not use noncommercial if they can avoid it, and we follow our own recommendation. It wasn’t until Dr. Balaji arrived that we were able to sort through the legal and technical challenges that COL, as an intergovernmental organization, faced in adopting an open license.

Many of the COL member states are located in the global south. How does an OER policy affect global south states differently than the global north?

I’m exaggerating quite a bit here, but we’ve observed that in the north people are more focused on producing OER and that in the south people are more focused on how they can use OER. Just a few months ago I was at the Open Courseware Conference in Boston. Perhaps three-fourths of the presentations there focused on producing OER, while only a small number were about re-purposing and reusing OER content. This has to change for the OER movement to take off.

In the south, there’s a cautious attitude of “there’s lots of stuff available, why not use it?” We’ve been encouraging the north to take a more universal approach and think multidirectionally. This is why we’re delighted that a school like the University of Michigan is using OER from Malawi and Ghana in its medical programs. Why should the University of Michigan create OERs about tropical diseases when there are folks that live in the tropics that can do it better? So, we encourage people to see OER production and use as a multi-directional flow.

Can you discuss the goals and outcomes of the Taking OER beyond the OER community project, organized by COL and UNESCO. What’s next?

This project has a long history, and really goes back all the way to the origin of the term Open Educational Resources. But more recently, in 2009 UNESCO hosted a world conference on higher education. That event didn’t ruffle feathers in the north so much, but influenced thinking in the south. It reiterated the importance of open distance learning, ICTs, and particularly emphasized the global sharing of OER to expand quality higher education. COL picked up the work with UNESCO. We realized that unless there is a much wider appreciation of what OER is, it’s not going anywhere. And as the name of the project implies, our goal was to advocate to those outside of the already-established open education community. We held six face-to-face workshops in Africa and Asia. These were mainly aimed at university presidents, quality assurance groups, and those interested in open distance learning.

Last December we held a policy forum at UNESCO in Paris to pull these threads together. We decided there that it would be helpful to develop a set of OER guidelines targeted at key stakeholder groups. These included governments, higher education institutions, teacher and student groups, quality assurance agencies, and qualification bodies. We’ve been iterating on these guidelines since then, and they are now being distributed for wide consultation. In October of this year there will be another policy forum where the OER guidelines for higher education will be put into final form. We hope to unveil these recommendations at the UNESCO general conference in November alongside an OER platform UNESCO will also be launching at that time.

Over the winter, we wish to conduct a rather extensive survey of governments around the world to find out where they are on policies related to OER, open access, open formats, and other related topics. Surveying governments is not an easy task, especially when they don’t always understand the questions you are asking. But, if all goes well, those survey results will be pulled together, to the end of working toward an update to the Cape Town Open Education Declaration. There’s a desire for COL and UNESCO to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the term “Open Educational Resources” with a conference in June 2012 at which countries can sign an updated declaration.

What do you predict will be the impact of the COL OER policy, and what would you like to see come out of this? What can you recommend to other IGOs that are beginning to think about developing an open education policy?

My advice is to just do it and don’t get too fussed about the license at the beginning. We hope that our small organization, which seems to have an influence larger than its size, will be the grain of sand in the oyster for other IGOs. UNESCO is working to get on the right page; given their name it would seem peculiar if they are not more in the ‘open’ business. But I understand the problem with large organizations. When you look at UNESCO, you’ve got general assemblies with lots of people that don’t like things unless they’re invented there. For example, everyone in the world wants for there to be standardization in electrical sockets, as long as the standard that is adopted is the one they use. Those organizations interested in adopting an open policy should start small, and work their way through the problems as they go. If you try to make your entire back catalog available, you’ll be lost. Those big intergovernmental organizations should say, “from now on, we’re going to be as open as we can be.” An important thing is to adopt the philosophy of openness.

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One thought on “Sir John Daniel of the Commonwealth of Learning: Open Education and Policy”

  1. I found the information shared in this post very useful. I think OER’s have a lot of potential of bringing education to one and all.

    Recently, I too have been creating a software solution to help peer communities learn Computer Science topics, and gain social credentials in the process.

    I am not doing this as a non-profit, because I am would not like to rely on donations. Rather, I am trying to take my project ahead on a sustainable profit model. However, one of the problems I am facing is in re-using existing OER resources. MIT’s OCW form the bulk of resources available for Computer Science, but because they are licensed with a NC clause, I cannot make use of those resources in my initiative. I am not complaining though… since it is their material, it is absolutely their right to license it in whichever way they seem appropriate 🙂 .

    COL’s stance that they will make content available on a CC BY-SA license, comes as a very welcome policy.

    Thanks.

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About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International — CC BY-NC 4.0
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Creative Commons Legal Code

Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Official translations of this license are available in other languages.

Creative Commons Corporation (“Creative Commons”) is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Distribution of Creative Commons public licenses does not create a lawyer-client or other relationship. Creative Commons makes its licenses and related information available on an “as-is” basis. Creative Commons gives no warranties regarding its licenses, any material licensed under their terms and conditions, or any related information. Creative Commons disclaims all liability for damages resulting from their use to the fullest extent possible.

Using Creative Commons Public Licenses

Creative Commons public licenses provide a standard set of terms and conditions that creators and other rights holders may use to share original works of authorship and other material subject to copyright and certain other rights specified in the public license below. The following considerations are for informational purposes only, are not exhaustive, and do not form part of our licenses.

Considerations for licensors: Our public licenses are intended for use by those authorized to give the public permission to use material in ways otherwise restricted by copyright and certain other rights. Our licenses are irrevocable. Licensors should read and understand the terms and conditions of the license they choose before applying it. Licensors should also secure all rights necessary before applying our licenses so that the public can reuse the material as expected. Licensors should clearly mark any material not subject to the license. This includes other CC-licensed material, or material used under an exception or limitation to copyright. More considerations for licensors.

Considerations for the public: By using one of our public licenses, a licensor grants the public permission to use the licensed material under specified terms and conditions. If the licensor’s permission is not necessary for any reason–for example, because of any applicable exception or limitation to copyright–then that use is not regulated by the license. Our licenses grant only permissions under copyright and certain other rights that a licensor has authority to grant. Use of the licensed material may still be restricted for other reasons, including because others have copyright or other rights in the material. A licensor may make special requests, such as asking that all changes be marked or described. Although not required by our licenses, you are encouraged to respect those requests where reasonable. More considerations for the public.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License

By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined below), You accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License ("Public License"). To the extent this Public License may be interpreted as a contract, You are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of Your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants You such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.

Section 1 – Definitions.

  1. Adapted Material means material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights that is derived from or based upon the Licensed Material and in which the Licensed Material is translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the Copyright and Similar Rights held by the Licensor. For purposes of this Public License, where the Licensed Material is a musical work, performance, or sound recording, Adapted Material is always produced where the Licensed Material is synched in timed relation with a moving image.
  2. Adapter's License means the license You apply to Your Copyright and Similar Rights in Your contributions to Adapted Material in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Public License.
  3. Copyright and Similar Rights means copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright including, without limitation, performance, broadcast, sound recording, and Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized. For purposes of this Public License, the rights specified in Section 2(b)(1)-(2) are not Copyright and Similar Rights.
  4. Effective Technological Measures means those measures that, in the absence of proper authority, may not be circumvented under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, and/or similar international agreements.
  5. Exceptions and Limitations means fair use, fair dealing, and/or any other exception or limitation to Copyright and Similar Rights that applies to Your use of the Licensed Material.
  6. Licensed Material means the artistic or literary work, database, or other material to which the Licensor applied this Public License.
  7. Licensed Rights means the rights granted to You subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, which are limited to all Copyright and Similar Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material and that the Licensor has authority to license.
  8. Licensor means the individual(s) or entity(ies) granting rights under this Public License.
  9. NonCommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. For purposes of this Public License, the exchange of the Licensed Material for other material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights by digital file-sharing or similar means is NonCommercial provided there is no payment of monetary compensation in connection with the exchange.
  10. Share means to provide material to the public by any means or process that requires permission under the Licensed Rights, such as reproduction, public display, public performance, distribution, dissemination, communication, or importation, and to make material available to the public including in ways that members of the public may access the material from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
  11. Sui Generis Database Rights means rights other than copyright resulting from Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, as amended and/or succeeded, as well as other essentially equivalent rights anywhere in the world.
  12. You means the individual or entity exercising the Licensed Rights under this Public License. Your has a corresponding meaning.

Section 2 – Scope.

  1. License grant.
    1. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to:
      1. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part, for NonCommercial purposes only; and
      2. produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material for NonCommercial purposes only.
    2. Exceptions and Limitations. For the avoidance of doubt, where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions.
    3. Term. The term of this Public License is specified in Section 6(a).
    4. Media and formats; technical modifications allowed. The Licensor authorizes You to exercise the Licensed Rights in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter created, and to make technical modifications necessary to do so. The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures. For purposes of this Public License, simply making modifications authorized by this Section 2(a)(4) never produces Adapted Material.
    5. Downstream recipients.
      1. Offer from the Licensor – Licensed Material. Every recipient of the Licensed Material automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License.
      2. No downstream restrictions. You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any recipient of the Licensed Material.
    6. No endorsement. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is, connected with, or sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor or others designated to receive attribution as provided in Section 3(a)(1)(A)(i).

  2. Other rights.

    1. Moral rights, such as the right of integrity, are not licensed under this Public License, nor are publicity, privacy, and/or other similar personality rights; however, to the extent possible, the Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any such rights held by the Licensor to the limited extent necessary to allow You to exercise the Licensed Rights, but not otherwise.
    2. Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License.
    3. To the extent possible, the Licensor waives any right to collect royalties from You for the exercise of the Licensed Rights, whether directly or through a collecting society under any voluntary or waivable statutory or compulsory licensing scheme. In all other cases the Licensor expressly reserves any right to collect such royalties, including when the Licensed Material is used other than for NonCommercial purposes.

Section 3 – License Conditions.

Your exercise of the Licensed Rights is expressly made subject to the following conditions.

  1. Attribution.

    1. If You Share the Licensed Material (including in modified form), You must:

      1. retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material:
        1. identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated);
        2. a copyright notice;
        3. a notice that refers to this Public License;
        4. a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties;
        5. a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable;
      2. indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and
      3. indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License.
    2. You may satisfy the conditions in Section 3(a)(1) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy the conditions by providing a URI or hyperlink to a resource that includes the required information.
    3. If requested by the Licensor, You must remove any of the information required by Section 3(a)(1)(A) to the extent reasonably practicable.
    4. If You Share Adapted Material You produce, the Adapter's License You apply must not prevent recipients of the Adapted Material from complying with this Public License.

Section 4 – Sui Generis Database Rights.

Where the Licensed Rights include Sui Generis Database Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material:

  1. for the avoidance of doubt, Section 2(a)(1) grants You the right to extract, reuse, reproduce, and Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database for NonCommercial purposes only;
  2. if You include all or a substantial portion of the database contents in a database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights, then the database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights (but not its individual contents) is Adapted Material; and
  3. You must comply with the conditions in Section 3(a) if You Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database.
For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 4 supplements and does not replace Your obligations under this Public License where the Licensed Rights include other Copyright and Similar Rights.

Section 5 – Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability.

  1. Unless otherwise separately undertaken by the Licensor, to the extent possible, the Licensor offers the Licensed Material as-is and as-available, and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the Licensed Material, whether express, implied, statutory, or other. This includes, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not known or discoverable. Where disclaimers of warranties are not allowed in full or in part, this disclaimer may not apply to You.
  2. To the extent possible, in no event will the Licensor be liable to You on any legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence) or otherwise for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other losses, costs, expenses, or damages arising out of this Public License or use of the Licensed Material, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such losses, costs, expenses, or damages. Where a limitation of liability is not allowed in full or in part, this limitation may not apply to You.
  1. The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided above shall be interpreted in a manner that, to the extent possible, most closely approximates an absolute disclaimer and waiver of all liability.

Section 6 – Term and Termination.

  1. This Public License applies for the term of the Copyright and Similar Rights licensed here. However, if You fail to comply with this Public License, then Your rights under this Public License terminate automatically.

  2. Where Your right to use the Licensed Material has terminated under Section 6(a), it reinstates:

    1. automatically as of the date the violation is cured, provided it is cured within 30 days of Your discovery of the violation; or
    2. upon express reinstatement by the Licensor.
    For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 6(b) does not affect any right the Licensor may have to seek remedies for Your violations of this Public License.
  3. For the avoidance of doubt, the Licensor may also offer the Licensed Material under separate terms or conditions or stop distributing the Licensed Material at any time; however, doing so will not terminate this Public License.
  4. Sections 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 survive termination of this Public License.

Section 7 – Other Terms and Conditions.

  1. The Licensor shall not be bound by any additional or different terms or conditions communicated by You unless expressly agreed.
  2. Any arrangements, understandings, or agreements regarding the Licensed Material not stated herein are separate from and independent of the terms and conditions of this Public License.

Section 8 – Interpretation.

  1. For the avoidance of doubt, this Public License does not, and shall not be interpreted to, reduce, limit, restrict, or impose conditions on any use of the Licensed Material that could lawfully be made without permission under this Public License.
  2. To the extent possible, if any provision of this Public License is deemed unenforceable, it shall be automatically reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. If the provision cannot be reformed, it shall be severed from this Public License without affecting the enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions.
  3. No term or condition of this Public License will be waived and no failure to comply consented to unless expressly agreed to by the Licensor.
  4. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be interpreted as a limitation upon, or waiver of, any privileges and immunities that apply to the Licensor or You, including from the legal processes of any jurisdiction or authority.

Creative Commons is not a party to its public licenses. Notwithstanding, Creative Commons may elect to apply one of its public licenses to material it publishes and in those instances will be considered the “Licensor.” The text of the Creative Commons public licenses is dedicated to the public domain under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. Except for the limited purpose of indicating that material is shared under a Creative Commons public license or as otherwise permitted by the Creative Commons policies published at creativecommons.org/policies, Creative Commons does not authorize the use of the trademark “Creative Commons” or any other trademark or logo of Creative Commons without its prior written consent including, without limitation, in connection with any unauthorized modifications to any of its public licenses or any other arrangements, understandings, or agreements concerning use of licensed material. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph does not form part of the public licenses.

Creative Commons may be contacted at creativecommons.org.

Additional languages available: Bahasa Indonesia, euskara, Deutsch, Español, français, hrvatski, italiano, latviski, Lietuvių, Nederlands, norsk, polski, português, suomeksi, svenska, te reo Māori, Türkçe, Ελληνικά, русский, українська, العربية, 日本語. Please read the FAQ for more information about official translations.

#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Use and Fair Use: Statement on shared images in facial recognition AI - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Legal tools / licenses > Use and Fair Use: Statement on shared images in facial recognition AI

Use and Fair Use: Statement on shared images in facial recognition AI

Yesterday, NBC News published a story about IBM’s work on improving diversity in facial recognition technology and the dataset that they gathered to further this work.

Ryan Merkley

March 13, 2019

Yesterday, NBC News published a story about IBM’s work on improving diversity in facial recognition technology and the dataset that they gathered to further this work. The dataset includes links to one million photos from Flickr, many or all of which were apparently shared under a Creative Commons license. Some Flickr users were dismayed to learn that IBM had used their photos to train the AI, and had questions about the ethics, privacy implications, and fair use of such a dataset being used for algorithmic training. We are reaching out to IBM to understand their use of the images, and to share the concerns of our community.

CC is dedicated to facilitating greater openness for the common good. In general, we believe that the use of publicly available data on the Internet has led to greater innovation, collaboration, and creativity. But there are also real concerns that data can be used for negative activities or negative outcomes.

While we do not have all the facts regarding the IBM dataset, we are aware that fair use allows all types of content to be used freely, and that all types of content are collected and used every day to train and develop AI. CC licenses were designed to address a specific constraint, which they do very well: unlocking restrictive copyright. But copyright is not a good tool to protect individual privacy, to address research ethics in AI development, or to regulate the use of surveillance tools employed online. Those issues rightly belong in the public policy space, and good solutions will consider both the law and the community norms of CC licenses and content shared online in general.

I hope we will use this moment to build on the important principles and values of sharing, and engage in discussion with those using our content in objectionable ways, and to speak out on and help shape positive outcomes on the important issues of privacy, surveillance, and AI that impact the sharing of works on the web.

We are taking this opportunity to speak to this particular type of reuse – improving artificial intelligence tools designed for facial recognition through the reuse of content found on the web (not just CC-licensed content) – to help clarify how the licenses work in this context. We have published new FAQs here that we will continue to update.

If you have comments or questions, please write CC at info@creativecommons.org. We will also be creating other opportunities to engage in public discussion in the coming weeks and months. We look forward to joining these discussions as we look for ways to resolve ethical public policy issues around data, AI, and machine learning as a community.

Category:Legal tools / licenses

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#####EOF##### Web Integration - Creative Commons

Web Integration

From Creative Commons
Jump to: navigation, search


This is a page describing everything a web-based (media) hosting site could do to integrate CC and CC-related features. From simple blogs to elaborate user-generated content communities, there are easy ways to share website content by publishing it under a Creative Commons license. Below we provide a basic overview of how you may integrate Creative Commons licensing into your website.

Tools of the Trade

HowTo Guide

While knowing about the various tools Creative Commons provides to integrate CC licenses in your web application, seeing examples of implementations is even better!

LicenseChooser.js

LicenseChooser.js provides a lightweight method for integrating license selection into web applications. The widget is used by TypePad, as well as WpLicense.

Partner Interface

This interface provides another method of integrating CC license choice in your web application using an iframe or HTML popup.

Web Services (API)

The web services are designed to be a more flexible option for building a custom, fully integrated solution.

ThirdParty Tools

  • Acts As License is a Ruby on Rails plugin that allows for integrating of CC license choice in your Rails web application as a server application building tool.


Underlying Technology

RDFa

RDFa is a way of expressing RDF in XHTML. Creative Commons uses RDFa to express license and other information about works for the semantic web.

CcREL

A specification describing how license information may be described and attached to works.

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Web_Integration&oldid=115420"

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#####EOF##### Data - Creative Commons

Data

From Creative Commons
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This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases
Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker's investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

How do I apply a CC legal tool to a database?

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our marking page for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights--but not copyright--are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

Which components of databases are protected by copyright?

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.[1] These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by copyright?

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

If my use of a database is restricted by copyright, how do I comply with the license?

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker's substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Notes

  1. ↑ Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).
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Human-readable summary of Sec 4: Some of us are lawyers, but we aren’t your lawyer. Please consult your own attorney if you need legal advice.

5. Content Available through the Services

Provided as-is: You acknowledge that Creative Commons does not make any representations or warranties about the material, data, and information, such as data files, text, computer software, code, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos, or other images (collectively, the “Content”) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Services. Under no circumstances is Creative Commons liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to: any infringing Content, any errors or omissions in Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, transmitted, linked from, or otherwise accessible through or made available via the Services. You understand that by using the Services, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, or objectionable.

You agree that you are solely responsible for your reuse of Content made available through the Services, including providing proper attribution. You should review the terms of the applicable license before you use the Content so that you know what you can and cannot do.

Licensing:

CC-Owned Content: Other than the text of Creative Commons licenses, CC0, and other legal tools and the text of the deeds for all legal tools (all of which are made available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication), Creative Commons trademarks (subject to the Trademark Policy), and the software code, all Content on the Websites is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, unless otherwise marked. See the CC Policies page for more information.

CC-Owned Code: All of CC’s software code is free software; please check our code repository for the specific license on software you want to reuse.

Search Tools: On some of its Websites, Creative Commons provides website search tools, including CC Search, which return Content based on any license information our search tools are able to locate and interpret. Those search tools may return Content that is not CC licensed, and you should independently verify the terms of the license attached to any Content you intend to use.

Human-readable summary of Sec 5: We try our best to have useful information on our sites, but we cannot promise that everything is accurate or appropriate for your situation. Content on the site is licensed under CC BY 4.0 unless it says it is available under different terms. If you find content through a link on our websites, be sure to check the license terms before using it.

6. Content Supplied by You

Your responsibility: You represent, warrant, and agree that no Content posted or otherwise shared by you on or through any of the Services (“Your Content”), violates or infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights, breaches or conflicts with any obligation, such as a confidentiality obligation, or contains libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful material.

Licensing Your Content: You retain any copyright that you may have in Your Content. You hereby agree that Your Content: (a) is hereby licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and may be used under the terms of that license or any later version of a Creative Commons Attribution License, or (b) is in the public domain (such as Content that is not copyrightable or Content you make available under CC0), or © if not owned by you, (i) is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License or (ii) is a media file that is available under any Creative Commons license or that you are authorized by law to post or share through any of the Services, such as under the fair use doctrine, and that is prominently marked as being subject to third party copyright. All of Your Content must be
appropriately marked with licensing (or other permission status such as fair use) and attribution information.

Removal: Creative Commons may, but is not obligated to, review Your Content and may delete or remove Your Content (without notice) from any of the Services in its sole discretion. Removal of any of Your Content from the Services (by you or Creative Commons) does not impact any rights you granted in Your Content under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Human-readable summary of Sec 6: We do not take any ownership of your content when you post it on our sites. If you post content you own, you agree it can be used under the terms of CC BY 4.0 or any future version of that license. If you do not own the content, then you should not post it unless it is in the public domain or licensed CC BY 4.0, except that you may also post pictures and videos if you are authorized to use them under law (e.g., fair use) or if they are available under any CC license. You must note that information on the file when you upload it. You are responsible for any content you upload to our sites.

7. Participating in our Community: Registered Users

By registering for an account through any of the Services, including CCID (a universal log-in for all Services), you represent and warrant that you (1) are the age of majority in your jurisdiction (typically age 18) or, (2) are over the age of 13 and have the express permission of a legal guardian to obtain an account and to use Services in connection with the account. Services offered to registered users are provided subject to these Master Terms and any Additional Terms specified on the relevant Website(s).

Registration: You agree to (a) only provide accurate and current information about yourself (though use of an alias or nickname in lieu of your legal name is encouraged), (b) maintain the security of your passwords and identification, © promptly update the email address listed in connection with your account to keep it accurate so that we can contact you, and (d) be fully responsible for all uses of your account. You must not set up an account on behalf of another individual or entity unless you are authorized to do so.

No Membership in CC: Creating a CCID or using any of the related Websites or Services does not and shall not be deemed to make you a member, shareholder or affiliate of Creative Commons for any purposes whatsoever, nor shall you have any of the rights of statutory members as defined in Sections 2(3) and 3 of Chapter 180 of the General Laws of Massachusetts.

Termination: Creative Commons reserves the right to modify or discontinue your account at any time for any reason or no reason at all.

Human-readable summary of Sec 7: Please do not register for an account on our sites unless you are 18 years old, or over 13 with the consent of your parents. CC has the right to end your account at any time. You are responsible for use of your account. And of course, please do not set up an account for someone else unless you have permission to do so. Setting up an account doesn’t make you a member of CC.

8. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to engage in any of the following activities:

1. Violating laws and rights:

  • You may not (a) use any Service for any illegal purpose or in violation of any local, state, national, or international laws, (b) violate or encourage others to violate any right of or obligation to a third party, including by infringing, misappropriating, or violating intellectual property, confidentiality, or privacy rights.

2. Solicitation:

  • You may not use the Services or any information provided through the Services for the transmission of advertising or promotional materials, including junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unsolicited or unwelcome solicitation.

3. Disruption:

  • You may not use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Services, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Services; including by (a) uploading or otherwise disseminating any virus, adware, spyware, worm or other malicious code, or (b) interfering with or disrupting any network, equipment, or server connected to or used to provide any of the Services, or violating any regulation, policy, or procedure of any network, equipment, or server.

4. Harming others:

  • You may not post or transmit Content on or through the Services that is harmful, offensive, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, defamatory, hateful or otherwise discriminatory, false or misleading, or incites an illegal act;
  • You may not intimidate or harass another through the Services; and, You may not post or transmit any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age on or through the Services.

5. Impersonation or unauthorized access:

  • You may not impersonate another person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity when using the Services;
  • You may not use or attempt to use another’s account or personal information; and,
  • You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services, or the computer systems or networks connected to the Services, through hacking password mining or any other means.

Human-readable summary of Sec 8: Play nice. Be yourself. Don’t break the law or be disruptive.

9. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS OFFERS THE SERVICES (INCLUDING ALL CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES) AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE SERVICES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL BE ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY SERVERS USED BY CC ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. CREATIVE COMMONS DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION REGARDING USE OF THE CONTENT AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES IN TERMS OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE.

Human-readable summary of Sec 9: CC does not make any guarantees about the sites, services, or content available on the sites.

10. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL CREATIVE COMMONS BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, ACTUAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF REVENUE OR INCOME, LOST PROFITS, PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR SIMILAR DAMAGES SUFFERED OR INCURRED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY THAT ARISE IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES (OR THE TERMINATION THEREOF FOR ANY REASON), EVEN IF CREATIVE COMMONS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CREATIVE COMMONS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE WHATSOEVER IN ANY MANNER FOR ANY CONTENT POSTED ON OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES (INCLUDING CLAIMS OF INFRINGEMENT RELATING TO THAT CONTENT), FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, OR FOR THE CONDUCT OF THIRD PARTIES ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES.

Certain jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply to you. IN THESE JURISDICTIONS, THE FOREGOING EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS WILL BE ENFORCED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

Human-readable summary of Sec 10: CC is not responsible for the content on the sites, your use of our services, or for the conduct of others on our sites.

11. Indemnification

To the extent authorized by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Creative Commons, its employees, officers, directors, affiliates, and agents from and against any and all claims, losses, expenses, damages, and costs, including reasonable attorneys fees, resulting directly or indirectly from or arising out of (a) your violation of the Terms, (b) your use of any of the Services, and/or © the Content you make available on any of the Services.

Human-readable summary of Sec 11: If something happens because you violate these terms, because of your use of the services, or because of the content you post on the sites, you agree to repay CC for the damage it causes.

12. Privacy Policy

Creative Commons is committed to responsibly handling the information and data we collect through our Services in compliance with our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms. Please review the Privacy Policy so you are aware of how we collect and use your personal information.

Human-readable summary of Sec 12: Please read our Privacy Policy. It is part of these terms, too.

13. Trademark Policy

CC’s name, logos, icons, and other trademarks may only be used in accordance with our Trademark Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Master Terms. Please review the Trademark Policy so you understand how CC’s trademarks may be used.

Human-readable summary of Sec 13: Please read our Trademark Policy. It is part of these terms, too.

14. Copyright Complaints

Creative Commons respects copyright, and we prohibit users of the Services from submitting, uploading, posting, or otherwise transmitting any Content on the Services that violates another person’s proprietary rights.

To report allegedly infringing Content hosted on a website owned or controlled by CC, send a Notice of Infringing Materials as set out in CC’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Notice & Takedown Procedure.

Please note that Creative Commons does not host the Content made available through CC Search. You should contact the web site or service hosting the Content to have it removed.

Human-readable summary of Sec 14: Please let us know if you find infringing content on our websites.

15. Termination

By Creative Commons: Creative Commons may modify, suspend, or terminate the operation of, or access to, all or any portion of the Services at any time for any reason. Additionally, your individual access to, and use of, the Services may be terminated by Creative Commons at any time and for any reason.

By you: If you wish to terminate this agreement, you may immediately stop accessing or using the Services at any time.

Automatic upon breach: Your right to access and use the Services (including use of your CCID account) terminates automatically upon your breach of any of the Terms. For the avoidance of doubt, termination of the Terms does not require you to remove or delete any reference to previously-applied CC legal tools from your own Content.

Survival: The disclaimer of warranties, the limitation of liability, and the jurisdiction and applicable law provisions will survive any termination. The license grants applicable to Your Content are not impacted by the termination of the Terms and shall continue in effect subject to the terms of the applicable license. Your warranties and indemnification obligations will survive for one year after termination.

Human-readable summary of Sec 15: If you violate these terms, you may no longer use our sites.

16. Miscellaneous Terms

Choice of law: The Terms are governed by and construed by the laws of the State of California in the United States, not including its choice of law rules.

Dispute resolution: The parties agree that any disputes between Creative Commons and you concerning these Terms, and/or any of the Services may only brought in a federal or state court of competent jurisdiction sitting in the Northern District of California, and you hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of such court.

  • If you are an authorized agent of a government or intergovernmental entity using the Services in your official capacity, including an authorized agent of the federal, state, or local government in the United States, and you are legally restricted from accepting the controlling law, jurisdiction, or venue clauses above, then those clauses do not apply to you. For any such U.S. federal government entities, these Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the laws of the United States of America (without reference to conflict of laws) and, in the absence of federal law and to the extent permitted under federal law, the laws of the State of California (excluding its choice of law rules).

No waiver: Either party’s failure to insist on or enforce strict performance of any of the Terms will not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right.

Severability: If any part of the Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by any law or regulation or final determination of a competent court or tribunal, that provision will be deemed severable and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.

No agency relationship: The parties agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Creative Commons as a result of the Terms or from your use of any of the Services.

Integration: These Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Creative Commons relating to this subject matter and supersede any and all prior communications and/or agreements between you and Creative Commons relating to access and use of the Services.

Human-readable summary of Sec 16: If there is a lawsuit arising from these terms, it should be in California and governed by California law. We are glad you use our sites, but this agreement does not mean we are partners.

Note about Reusing these Terms of Use.

The Creative Commons Terms of Use are dedicated to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication. You are free to use and adapt these Master Terms and any applicable Additional Terms for your own purposes. However, please keep in mind that these Terms may not be completely suitable for your situation. Creative Commons strongly encourages you to seek the advice of your own attorney before repurposing these Terms on your own site.

#####EOF##### The Free Culture Game - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > The Free Culture Game

The Free Culture Game

September 26, 2008

The Free Culture Game, created by Molleindustria, is a flashed based abstract art piece that attempts to articulate the interplay between the commons and culture at large. Released under a CC BY-NC-SA license, we heard about it first on our community lists, but it has since been getting some nice traction elsewhere on the blogosphere. From Rhizome:

Italian artists Molleindustria promise “radical games against the dictatorship of entertainment,” and their latest effort may be their most direct statement against the pleasure industry to date. Touted as “playable theory,” the Free Culture Game offers a ludic metaphor for the battle between copyright encroachments and the free exchange of knowledge, ideas and art.

A circular field represents The Common, where knowledge can be freely shared and created; your job is to maintain a healthy ecology of yellow idea-bubbles bouncing from person to person before they can be sucked into the dark outer ring representing the forces of The Market. Your cursor, shaped like the Creative Commons logo, pushes the ideas around with a sort of reverse-magnetic repulsion field (a clever alternative to the typical shooting, eating or jumping-on-top-of-and-smooshing actions of many other 2-D games). People who absorb free, round ideas stay green and happy, while those who only consume square market-produced ones become grey and inverted.

The game never really ends: you can only do better or worse, suggesting by analogy that the fight for free culture will be an ongoing struggle without end.

Category:Weblog
Tags:, , ,

3 thoughts on “The Free Culture Game”

  1. Actually the game ends: when all the people are green the vectorialist explodes and you see a quote about copyleft. It’s kinda hard though.

  2. I just beat it! If you get all the people to green, the copyright machine pops and you get a Borges quote about the cultural commons.

    So perhaps the copyfight is not a Sisyphean struggle…it just feels like it most of the time. 🙂

  3. I think the cursor is supposed to be a copyleft logo, rather than Creative Commons, since the C is always facing left. It’s a very nice idea for a game though!

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#####EOF##### Marking your work with a CC license - Creative Commons

Marking your work with a CC license

From Creative Commons
Jump to: navigation, search

You have chosen a CC license for your work. Now how do you go about letting the world know? Here are some examples of how to mark your work with the CC license. Note: If you want to know how to attribute other creators' CC licensed materials, go here.

How to use the CC License Chooser

You can easily add a CC license notice to your website by visiting the CC license chooser. At the chooser, simply answer a few questions, fill in the fields you need, and receive an already formatted HTML code.

CC license chooser v2.png

At this point, all you have to do is:

1. Copy and paste the HTML code into your webpage or website.

The specifics of inserting the code depend on how you edit your website. The block of code should be inserted into the page HTML - most desktop website tools like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or GoLive offer a "code view" that lets you see the code that makes up your page. Near the end of the page before you see </body></html>, paste the HTML code in directly.
If all of the resources you are publishing on a single website are licensed under the same CC license, it makes sense to paste the HTML code into your website’s template (e.g., in a footer or sidebar area). After saving the template, the chosen license information should appear everywhere on your site. Whether you add license information to a single page or an entire site, once live on the Internet, the license information will be displayed and the machines will be able to detect the license status automatically.

2. Edit the descriptive text to suit your needs.

For example, if you select CC BY in the chooser, the default text you receive in the second line of html code is:
This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.
The bolded text is descriptive, and you can edit it without affecting the code. For example, you might specify what 'work' you're talking about, or let users know that the entire site is available under the license unless noted otherwise. You could edit the bolded part as follows:
Except where otherwise noted, this website is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Example: Website

Cc.org cc by license.jpg

This is the CC license notice at the bottom of this website. The CC BY license notice shows up on every page of creativecommons.org. This is a good example because:

Author? - Since the license is for the CC website as a whole, which includes multiple authors, one attribution party is not specified. Instead, it is clarified in the Terms of Use (linked in the footer on the left) who owns what content.
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) and linked.
Machine-readability? - Yup. Copied and pasted code from the license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Also, we make it clear that we will let you know when material is governed by terms different from the CC BY license.

Example: Blog

Parker's blog

If you visit Parker's blog, you will see this notice. Parker filled out a few fields in the CC license chooser, which spit out an html code. He copied and pasted the html code into his website, editing the descriptive text to his needs. This is a really good example because:

Author? - Parker specified that he is the author of the work.
License? - Parker named and linked to the specific CC license (Creative Commons Attribution).
Machine-readability? - Yup. Copied and pasted code from the license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Yup. Parker indicated that the site was "parker higgins dot net."

Example: Offline document

For documents that are meant to be shared offline, use a title and/or copyright page to include the copyright notice and CC license information. You can obtain suggested text using the license chooser.

Help others attribute you.jpg

In the 'Help others attribute you!' box, select 'Offline' in the drop-down menu for 'License mark'. Instead of html, you will receive the following text which you can edit as needed: "This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/." You can also download the corresponding CC license icon at our downloads page.

Example

Col cc notice.jpg

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) added this CC license notice to their copyright page in the report entitled, Survey on Governments’ Open Educational Resources (OER) Policies. This is a good example because:

Author? - "by The Commonwealth of Learning"
License? - The notice clearly specifies the CC BY-SA license along with a link.
Machine-readability? - No, it's an offline document.
Other good stuff? - COL added a (c) copyright notice and a title for the work. COL also added a license icon to make it visually appealing and recognizable. (All CC license icons can be downloaded for free here.)

If you link to the document on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

If you want to get technical and attempt embedding metadata within documents, see the CC-OpenOfficeOrg Addin for OpenOffice or the Microsoft Office add-ins for Microsoft Office 2003/XP, Office 2007/2010/2013.

Example: Image

8256206923 c77e85319e n.jpg
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol can be reused under the CC BY license

This photo was taken during CC's 10th birthday party in San Francisco by CC staff member tvol. This is a good example because:

Author? - "tvol" and linked to his Flickr profile page
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) and linked.
Machine-readability? - No, but it could be if we copied and pasted code from the CC license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Title is noted and linked to Flickr page where original image resides.

It is also easy to publish your image on an image sharing platform that has built-in CC licensing, such as Flickr, 500px, or Wikimedia Commons.

Note: We don't recommend adding a watermark or visual marker directly on an image, as it can detract from the original and prevent the reuse you want to allow with the CC license. Instead, make sure that the license information is clearly visible underneath (or otherwise next to) the image.

Example: Presentation

CC presentation example.jpg

This slide appears at the end of Jane Park's presentation called "Using the CC BY license, Workshop for 2013 OPEN Kick-off" at Slideshare. This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly specifies that Creative Commons is the party that should be credited, along with a request to link to creativecommons.org.
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) with a link provided.
Machine-readability? - Yes, because it was uploaded to Slideshare, a slide-sharing platform that supports CC licensing.
Other good stuff? - Jane made use of one of the free CC_video_bumpers to iconically illustrate the CC BY license. She also makes it clear that she will let you know when material is governed by terms different from the CC BY license ('Except otherwise noted..' ).

If you link to or embed the presentation on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

Example: Video

By bw small.png

This is a CC video bumper, which you can add to your video if you have room for a 2-5 second copyright frame. Here are some pre-made CC_video_bumpers and some newly updated bumpers (as of Feb. 2019).

You can edit these bumpers or create your own still with more information. Just make sure that such a still contains all the information recommended below.

Once you've added a copyright notice within your video, we recommend uploading your video to one of these video-sharing platforms that have built-in CC licensing. These platforms take care of the machine-readability for you. You can also add author and license info to any "about" field at these sites. After you've uploaded the videos, you can share the video on your own website or blog using the platform's "embed" feature.

If you link to or embed the video on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below. For example, this blog post does a good job of displaying the CC license information about the video outside of its medium.

Video embed example.jpg

If you want to get technical, we have a document about marking materials so that they are machine-readable.

Example: Audio

CC podcast introduction by Cory Doctorow

This is a sample CC audio bumper which you can add at the beginning of an audio file to orally tell users of the CC license. Feel free to use intro bumpers developed by various Internet celebrities. You can also create your own, which can include more information as recommended below.

For audio, we recommend uploading your file to one of the music sharing platforms or communities that support CC licensing. These platforms take care of the machine-readability for you. You can also add author and license info to any "about" field at these sites.

If you link to the file on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

If you want to get technical, Use your favorite audio player to add in the information. See Embedded_Metadata. You can also add ID3 tags to a common audio file type, such as the MP3, or browse other file types.

Example: Dataset

Rufous woodpecker metadata.jpg

This is a CC license notice for a snippet of metadata that is part of the India Biodiversity Portal dataset. All the info is displayed once you click on the "i" to "Show details." This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly noted in the Contributors field as "Chitra Ravi, Content Editor, India Biodiversity Portal"
License? - The specific CC license is displayed via CC BY license icon and linked to the deed.
Machine-readability? - No, but they're working on that.
Other good stuff? - References used to create the summary/brief noted. License and author info easily found by clicking on "i" for more details.
Rufous woodpecker image marking.jpg

This is the CC license notice for the image to the right of the dataset which in this case is governed by different terms. This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly noted once you click on the "i" under Attributions - Flickr user "ric seet"
License? - CC BY-NC-ND, which is displayed in icon and icon is linked to the deed
Machine-readability? - No, but they're working on that.
Other good stuff? - Link included to original Flickr image and even date that image was accessed. License and author info easily found by clicking on "i" for more details.

Author, License, Machine-readability

A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym ALM, which stands for Author, License, Machine-readability.

Author - Who should the user attribute?

This means the person who owns the copyright to the material and is licensing it to the public, aka the 'licensor.' If you are the licensor, then name yourself! If you're only one of the licensors, then name the others, too. If you are licensing the material on behalf of another entity, such as an organization, then you would note that instead.

License - How can the material be used?

This one's easy--they can use it under the CC license! Make sure to name the specific CC license the material is under and link to it, eg. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License with a link to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses!
→ Also consider including the corresponding CC license icon, a visible indication of the license that is recognized as part of the CC brand around the world, eg. http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/80x15.png

Machine-readability - Can machines read it?

We live in the digital age, so this is very important. If you want search engines and software systems to be able to detect the CC license, then make sure to use our license chooser tool to get the machine-readable html code, which you can then easily paste into web pages. This code is simply a summary of the license in a format that machines can understand, hence the term "machine-readability". (Note: You can also upload your work to a content sharing platform that supports CC licensing and takes care of the machine-readability for you.)

Lastly, Is there anything else the user should know about the material?

Is your work a modification of another work? Does your work incorporate elements of several third party materials? Are you adding any warranties, or modifying the existing disclaimer in the CC license? Are you granting additional permissions beyond what the license allows? If your answer is yes to any of these, then you should note that along with the license information about your work. For example, if your work incorporates third party materials, you would note those materials and make sure to attribute each of them correctly. This is also your chance to grant additional permissions. For example, if you license something under CC BY but are okay with people not attributing you in certain cases--this is your chance to specify those cases. You can't change the terms of a CC license, but you can always grant additional permissions or warranties.

Content-sharing platforms

One way to increase visibility and access to your work is to share it with an existing community on a content-sharing platform. Many platforms support machine-automated CC licensing, making it easy for you to indicate the license along with other information, such as who to attribute. In addition, these platforms may offer the ability to filter or search content by CC license, which increases the chances that your work may be discovered. Search engines, such as Google or Yahoo!, also index CC-licensed works from these platforms.

Take a look at how to license your work on a few of these platforms, like Vimeo and Soundcloud, at Publish.

If your favorite platform does not enable CC licensing, the best thing to do is to add in the license information manually as you would on your own site. There is usually a description or other free form field where you can enter info about the work. You might also consider encouraging your platform or community to enable CC licensing. If the demand is great, they just might listen.

Adding a CC0 public domain notice to your work

If you have decided to dedicate your work to the public domain using CC0, you can use the CC0 waiver tool just like you use the CC license chooser. Simply fill in the fields at the form, go through the the necessary steps of reading and understanding what rights you are giving up with CC0, and receive the already formatted html code at the end, as show below.

Ml blog cc0.jpg File:Ml blog cc0 2.jpg

Then copy and paste the resulting html into your website as you normally would, following best practices outlined above for adding a CC license using the license chooser.

You can see how Mike did that here, and by visiting his blog: File:Ml blog cc0 3.jpg

You can also upload your work to a content-sharing platform that supports CC0.

If you want to mark specific media, see the different examples above. You would simply exchange the CC license text with the CC0 waiver text, shown in the example below.

Example: CC0

Casey image cc0.jpg

The text reads: "Copyright and related rights waived via CC0"

This blog post is a good example of marking an image with CC0 instead of a CC license because:

It tells you what the CC0 tool actually does and links to the CC0 deed so that users may understand further. It is also clear that CC0 is not a license, but a waiver.

Other issues

Adding a CC license to your derivative work

If the work you are licensing is a derivative of another work, then in addition to following best practices above, you need to let your potential users know a few things:

  • That your work is a derivative of another work
  • Attribution for the original work (see Best practices for attribution)
  • If there are any other rights (eg. third party content used under fair use or other exceptions) that they should be aware of

Remember that if your work is an adaptation of a work licensed under either CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA, then your derivative work must be made available under the same license as per the ShareAlike condition.

Note: When modifying materials under one of the Version 4.0 CC licenses, you must make a note of any modifications you make to the materials, regardless of whether the modification is significant enough to merit a derivative work. For examples, see Best practices for attribution.

Noting third-party content in your work

When you add a CC license to your work, you are only granting permissions to the rights you hold in the work. So if your work is a derivative of another creator's CC-licensed work, or otherwise incorporates third-party content under fair use or other exceptions, then you should make a note of that for your users. Your CC license only ever covers the rights you have in the content you create, and never other content by third parties.

If you are incorporating materials offered under other CC licenses, then see our best practices for attribution.

For more information, or for tips on how to mark content that is incorporated under fair use or other exceptions, see marking third-party content.

Don't call it a CC license if it isn't

When marking your work, remember that any restriction or modification to the original license cannot be labeled a 'Creative Commons’ license. See our Trademark policy.es: Marcando tu obra con una licencia CC

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license&oldid=116977"

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#####EOF##### Public Domain Mark - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work > Public domain > Public Domain Mark

Public Domain Mark

"No Known Copyright"

PDM

Our Public Domain Mark enables works that are no longer restricted by copyright to be marked as such in a standard and simple way, making them easily discoverable and available to others. Many cultural heritage institutions including museums, libraries and other curators are knowledgeable about the copyright status of paintings, books and manuscripts, photographs and other works in their collections, many of which are old and no longer under copyright.  The Public Domain Mark operates as a tag or a label, allowing institutions like those as well as others with such knowledge to communicate that a work is no longer restricted by copyright and can be freely used by others.  The mark can also be an important source of information, allowing others to verify a work’s copyright status and learn more about the work.

Recommended Uses of the Public Domain Mark

The Public Domain Mark is recommended for works that are free of known copyright around the world. These will typically be very old works.  It is not recommended for use with works that are in the public domain in some jurisdictions if they also known to be restricted by copyright in others.

A work may have limited or “hybrid” public domain status for several reasons.  Some jurisdictions have unusually long copyright terms, which may mean that a work free from copyright restrictions most everywhere in the world could still be protected by the copyright laws of that particular country.  Sometimes a work is no longer restricted by copyright in a jurisdiction because the author or owner failed to comply with local formalities such as renewal, where those formalities apply.  It could also be the case for works that are deemed not protected by copyright by operation of law in a particular jurisdiction, but that are afforded protection under the copyright laws of other jurisdictions.

CC does not recommend the Public Domain Mark for works with limited, hybrid public domain status at this time, though we will be exploring means for doing so in 2014.

#####EOF##### Network Strategy - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Global Affiliate Network > Network Strategy

Network Strategy

The Creative Commons Global Network recently undertook a community led strategic process to revamp, revitalize, and strengthen the network. This included a research lead by Anna Mazgal, from Poland, with a series of researchers working with her from inside and outside the network. A dedicated team of CC community members designed an entirely new model for collaboration – helping the network grow in a sustainable manner.

After that we started a community engagement process in order to consult the movement about the Strategy draft. The process included more than two hundred comments on the online platform, 22 online and in-person meetings and the participation of the 89% of the actual members of the Affiliate Network. The result of this process is a new structure and strategy document for the Creative Commons Global Network.

After the Global Summit we started a Transition period. We called it Transition because the new strategy for the movement requires time in terms to implement the new structure, the new way of work and the new governance.

Transition and timelines

We have identified three elements for this transition period. These are just elements or layers that will drive our work during this first stage before the Strategy is fully implemented, providing us a vision, timelines and compromises to orientate the work we need to do in the meantime.

Chapters

The local work is key for the New Strategy.  To coordinate this efforts we will trust in Chapters as units for the governance and to coordinate local work. These Chapters are made up of people, with individuals whose work is focused on the place where they live, have accepted the Creative Commons Charter and has been vouched by two actual members.

Platforms

Platforms are how we organize areas of work for the Creative Commons community, where individuals and institutions organize and coordinate themselves across the CC Global Network.

Platforms are the way we create and communicate strategic collaboration to have worldwide impact – it is the way our network works collaboratively. The platforms are open to anyone willing to contribute and develop usable, vibrant and collaborative global commons.

During this transition period we have been working into four different Platforms:

  • Open Education Platform
  • Copyright Reform Platform
  • Community Development Platform
  • GLAM Platform

Further information about each of them, on GitHub.

Timeline for PLATFORMS

  • Set priorities and background work: June/July 2017.
  • Develop the plan of work: April 2018 (Global Summit)

Governance

The main governance body for the new Strategy is the Global Network Council, and it’s important to us to focus on establishing the new Chapters as soon as we can, and to make that happen we will be opening the membership process in the coming weeks for anyone to join.

  • Open call to constitute an Advisory Group: June 2017.
  • Memberships first application process: January 2018.
  • First Global Network Council meeting: Mid 2018
#####EOF##### Blog - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog

News

Los europeos deberían decirle al Parlamento que vote NO a los filtros de derechos de autor

Llegó el momento decisivo para el proyecto de directiva sobre derechos de autor en el mercado único digital de la Unión Europea. Las dramáticas consecuencias negativas que traerían los filtros de carga de contenidos serían desastrosas para la visión que Creative Commons tiene como organización y comunidad global. La inclusión del Artículo 13 hace que … Read More “Los europeos deberían decirle al Parlamento que vote NO a los filtros de derechos de autor”

Policy / advocacy / copyright reform

CC Search: A New Vision, Strategy & Roadmap for 2019

At A Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain at the Internet Archive, I teased a new product vision for CC Search that gets more specific than our ultimate goal of providing access to all 1.4 billion CC licensed and public domain works on the web.

Technology
#####EOF##### Best practices for attribution - Creative Commons

Best practices for attribution

From Creative Commons
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You can use CC-licensed materials as long as you follow the license conditions. One condition of all CC licenses is attribution. Here are some good (and not so good) examples of attribution. Note: If you want to learn how to mark your own material with a CC license go here.

Examples of attribution

Here is a photo. Following it are some examples of how people might attribute it.

8256206923 c77e85319e n.jpg

This is an ideal attribution

"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Because:

Title? "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco"
Author? "tvol" - linked to his profile page
Source? "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" - linked to original Flickr page
License? "CC BY 2.0" - linked to license deed

This is a pretty good attribution

Photo by tvol / CC BY

Because:

Title? Title is not noted (it should be) but at least the source is linked.
Author? "tvol"
Source? "Photo" - linked to original Flickr page
License? "CC BY" - linked to license deed

This is an incorrect attribution

Photo: Creative Commons

Because:

Title? Title is not noted.
Author? Creative Commons is not the author of this photo.
Source? No link to original photo.
License? There is no mention of the license, much less a link to the license. "Creative Commons" is an organization.

This is a good attribution for material you modified slightly

8256206923 c77e85319e n desaturated.jpg
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol, used under CC BY / Desaturated from original

Because:

Title, Author, Source, and License are all noted
Modification? "Desaturated from original"

This is a good attribution for material from which you created a derivative work

8256206923 c77e85319e n 90fied.jpg
This work, "90fied", is a derivative of "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol, used under CC BY. "90fied" is licensed under CC BY by [Your name here].

Because:

Original Title, Author, Source, and License are all noted
Derivative? "This work, "90fied", is a derivative of..."
New author of the derivative work is also noted

Note: If you're at a point where you are licensing derivative works, go to Marking your work with a CC license.

This is a good attribution for material from multiple sources

Saylor marking example.jpg

Because:

Title? Specific works are named, eg. "Box-and-whisker Plots"
Author? Different authors noted for the different works.
Source? Original materials are linked for each work
License? The different licenses (Creative Commons Attribution for Collaborative Statistics and Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike for the Khan Academy video) are spelled out and linked for each work
Lastly, it is clear which attribution belongs to which work.

You can visit the Saylor.org Introduction to Statistics course page to see how they marked it up directly.

Title, Author, Source, License

A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym TASL, which stands for Title, Author, Source, License.

Title - What is the name of the material?

If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don't worry about it.

Author - Who owns the material?

Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request.

Source - Where can I find it?

Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides.

License - How can I use it?

You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY.
→ If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well.

Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it?

When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? (That was a mouthful!) Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don't make it anymore complicated than it is -- just pass on any info you think is important.
→ Regarding modifications: Don't forget to note if you modified the work yourself (example). If you are at the point where you are creating and licensing derivative works (example), see Marking your work with a CC license.

These best practices are based on actual CC license requirements. Noting the title is a requirement of all CC licenses version 3.0 or earlier, optional for 4.0. Noting the author, source, license, and retaining any extra notices is a requirement of all CC licenses. See Devil in the details.

Devil in the details

If you have any doubts or questions, you can read the complete attribution requirements which are spelled out in detail in the legal code of every CC license, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode#s3a. This chart compares the detailed requirements across all versions of CC licenses.

Don't make it too complicated

The license tells you to be reasonable:

You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information.

There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you're working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it's just a link to an About page that has that info. (More on different mediums below.)

Attribution in specific media

As stated above, best practices for attribution apply as reasonable to the medium you're working with. For media such as offline materials, video, audio, and images, consider:

1. Publishing a web page with attribution information. For example, on a webpage featuring your audio recording, provide a credit list of material you used that adheres to best practices above. Doing so allows not only your material, but the materials you attribute, to be found by search engines and other web discovery tools. If possible within the medium, make the Author, Source, and License links the user can follow.
Example:
This video features the song "Desaprendere (Treatment)" by fourstones, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
2. Mentioning the credits within the media itself. For example, crediting videos can be a simple list of the materials used with their associated licenses in a screen at the end of a video. For audio, it can be a verbal recitation of credits at the end of the recording.
Video example 1: "Science Commons" by Jesse Dylan - see attribution starting at 1:52
Video example 2: "Video Editing and Shot Techniques: Study of jump cuts, match cuts and cutaways " video by New Media Rights - see attribution starting at 3:21
Audio example: "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow read aloud. Mastered by John Taylor Williams - listen to attribution starting at 17:08

If you want to get Technical

If you really want to go there, we have a document about marking materials so that they are machine-readable.

Also, several groups are exploring ways to make attribution easier and simultaneously machine-readable for the web. Here are some tools that have been developed:

  • Open Attribute - a browser plugin for Firefox and Chrome that grabs the CC license metadata on a web page and turns it into an attribution for you
  • Commons Machinery - a suite of plugins for Firefox and open office tools that enables copying and pasting images with the attribution info already attached


Other guides to attribution

  • How To Attribute CC Photos poster by foter
  • Attributing Creative Commons Material (pdf) - Creative Commons Australia's publication is full of examples with colorful imagery.
  • How to attribute works you reuse under a Creative Commons license by New Media Rights provides real world examples by different media type
  • Library Resources Fox Valley Technical College provides examples of suggested OER attribution and citations. They recommend the following TASL format: “Content Title” from Encompassing Container Title, Version, by Author © Copyright date [Alternate owner if different from Author] is licensed with License [URL of license description]. Access at DOI or permalink or URL. Additional Publisher notes or licensing requirements.
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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

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Creative Commons > Blog > Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Statement on the death of CC friend and colleague Bassel Khartabil

We are deeply saddened and completely outraged to learn today that our friend and colleague Bassel Khartabil has been executed by the Syrian regime. Bassel was Creative Commons’ Syrian project lead, an open source software programmer, teacher, Wikipedia contributor, and free culture advocate. He was also a devoted son and husband, and a great friend … Read More “Statement on the death of CC friend and colleague Bassel Khartabil”

Uncategorized

Wikipedia Says It’s Time for Fair Use in Australia

This week Wikipedia is urging users in Australia to tell their government representatives to champion fair use. The campaign, organised alongside Electronic Frontiers Australia and the Australian Digital Alliance, advocates for policy makers to update copyright law to include fair use, thus providing a progressive legal framework to support creators and remixers, educational activities, and … Read More “Wikipedia Says It’s Time for Fair Use in Australia”

Policy / advocacy / copyright reform
#####EOF##### Defining Noncommercial report published - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Education / OER > Defining Noncommercial report published

Defining Noncommercial report published

September 14, 2009


Almost one year ago we launched a study of how people understand “noncommercial use.” The study, generously supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, included in-depth interviews and two waves of in-person and online focus groups and online questionnaires. The last included a random sample of U.S. (geographic restriction mandated by resource constraints) internet users and in an extended form, open questionnaires promoted via this blog (called “CC Friends & Family” in the report).

Today, we’re publishing the Defining Noncommercial study report and raw data, released under a CC Attribution license and CC0 public domain waiver respectively — yes, this report on “noncommercial” may unambiguously be used for commercial purposes. Also see today’s press release.

The study was conducted by Netpop Research under advisement from academics and a working group consisting of several CC jurisdiction project members as well as CC staff and board members.

Study findings

Creative Commons noncommercial licenses include a definition of commercial use, which precludes use of rights granted for commercial purposes:

… in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.

The majority of respondents (87% of creators, 85% of users) replied that the definition was “essentially the same as” (43% of creators, 42% of users) or “different from but still compatible with” (44% of creators, 43% of users) theirs. Only 7% of creators and 11% of users replied that the term was “different from and incompatible with” their definition; 6% or creators and 4% of users replied “don’t know/not sure.” 74% and 77% of creators and users respectively think others share their definition and only 13% of creators and 11% of users wanted to change their definition after completing the questionnaire.

On a scale of 1-100 where 1 is “definitely noncommercial” and 100 is “definitely commercial” creators and users (84.6 and 82.6, respectively) both rate uses in connection with online advertising generally as “commercial.” However, more specific use cases revealed that many interpretations are fact-specific. For example, creators and users gave the specific use case “not-for-profit organization uses work on its site, organization makes enough money from ads to cover hosting costs” ratings of 59.2 and 71.7, respectively.

On the same scale, creators and users (89.4 and 91.7, respectively) both rate uses in which money is made as being commercial, yet again those ratings are lower in use cases specifying cost recovery or use by not-for-profits. Finally, both groups rate “personal or private” use as noncommercial, though creators did so less strongly than users (24.3 and 16.0, respectively, on the same scale).

In open access polls, CC’s global network of “friends and family” rate some uses differently from the U.S. online population—although direct empirical comparisons may not be drawn from these data. For example, creators and users in these polls rate uses by not-for-profit organizations with advertisements as a means of cost recovery at 35.7 and 40.3, respectively — somewhat more noncommercial. They also rate “personal or private” use as strongly noncommercial—8.2 and 7.8, respectively — again on a scale of 1-100 where 1 is “definitely noncommercial” and 100 is “definitely commercial.”

See much more in the study report and draw your own conclusions from the data.

The below is drawn from the Section 4 of the report, titled “Next” — we urge you to read that section for more, including ideas for future research.

Import for Creative Commons noncommercial licenses

In the next years, possibly as soon as 2010, we expect to formally kick off a multi-year, international process for producing the next version (4.0) of the six main Creative Commons licenses.

This process will include examination of whether the NC term should be usefully modified as a part of that effort, or if the better approach might be to adopt a “best practices” approach of articulating the commercial/noncommercial distinction for certain creator or user communities apart from the licenses themselves. Whichever the result, this study has highlighted that in order to meet the expectations of licensors using CC NC licenses it will be important to avoid any modification of the term, however manifested, that makes a use widely agreed to be commercial — or only agreed to be noncommercial with low consensus — explicitly noncommercial. There is an analogue in our statement of intent for CC Attribution-ShareAlike, which provides assurances that we will not break the expectations of licensors whose intent is to release works under copyleft terms.

While the costs of license proliferation are already widely appreciated and resisted by many, the study weighs against any lingering temptation to offer multiple flavors of NC licenses due to strong agreement on the commerciality of certain use cases that, in the past, may have been considered by some to be good candidates for splitting off into specialized versions of the NC term, such as online advertising. For even in those cases where strong agreement may appear to exist upon initial inquiry, such as with online advertising, nuances and sometimes strong differences of opinion are immediately revealed when more specific use cases are tested and facts presented — such as those involving cost recovery or support of nonprofit organizations.

The study results also advise against any concerted effort by CC to attempt appeasing all license users, all the time — study participants are divided over the value of more or fewer specific “use cases” to delineate the commercial/noncommercial divide, some see the lack of specific uses as a strength and others as a weakness, and many others still disagree with the notion that a single definition of noncommercial use could be workable. Thus is the challenge, and opportunity, of public license stewards.

Aside from decisions about the NC licenses themselves, we will be looking back to the study as we update explanations of noncommercial licensing on our license deeds, license chooser, and other materials. Your ideas and feedback are most welcome (see below).

Creative Commons recommendations on using noncommercial licenses

Overall, our NC licenses appear to be working rather well — they are our most popular licenses and we are not aware of a large number of disputes between licensors and licensees over the meaning of the term. The study hints at some of the potential reasons for this state of affairs, including that users are in some cases more conservative in their interpretation of what is noncommercial than are creators and that in some cases creators who earn more money from their work (i.e., have more reason to dispute questionable uses) are more liberal in their interpretation of what is noncommercial than are those who earn less.

While it would take a more focused and exhaustive study to conclude that these seemingly fortunate attitudinal differences are correct, strong, and global, they do hint at rules of thumb for licensors releasing works under NC licenses and licensees using works released under NC licenses — licensors should expect some uses of their works that would not meet the most stringently conservative definition of noncommercial, and licensees who are uncertain of whether their use is noncommercial should find a work to use that does unambiguously allow commercial use (e.g., licensed under CC BY, CC BY-SA, or in the public domain) or ask the licensor for specific permission (interestingly about half of respondents to the “CC Friends & Family” questionnaire who had released works under a NC license indicated that they had been contacted for specific permission). Note that this rule of thumb has an analogue in network protocol design and implementation known as the robustness principle or Postel’s Law: “Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others.”

One way to think about Creative Commons generally is of providing tools to prevent the failed sharing that results from relying on copyrights’ defaulting to “all rights reserved” — uses that you would allow but that will not occur because you haven’t authorized them (maybe haven’t even thought of them) and the costs of finding you and getting authorization are too high for the intended use (or maybe you’re dead and even scholarly use of your works is suppressed by your estate). This sounds dry, but think about the anti-network effects of failed sharing at the level of a society, and the costs are large indeed. Some have realized that too much use of NC licensing suppresses uses that a licensor who wants to share may wish to allow, at a cost to NC licensors and licensees and a greater cost to communities and the broader free culture movement — failed sharing, though at a much smaller scale than the failed sharing engendered by default copyright. The Definition of Free Cultural Works website includes an article summarizing reasons to avoid NC licenses (and use a free license such as CC BY or CC BY-SA). If you’re concerned about the costs of NC licensing to yourself, the free culture movement, or society at large, review the arguments and consider “dropping -NC” from your license.

The potential negative impact and corresponding lack of use of noncommercial licensing differs across fields. For example, noncommercial licenses do not exist at all in the free and open source software world (note that CC recommends using a free and open source software license for software). Science and education are two large fields in which we believe that liberal licensing or the public domain are most appropriate. Unsurprisingly Wikipedia, with strong relationships with the free software, open access (scientific publishing), and open education movements, mandates liberal licensing, and many other massively collaborative projects are following.

However, compelling use cases for NC licensing remain — most obviously when an existing significant revenue stream from a work would be compromised by release under liberal terms. Giving your audience legal certainty that they won’t be prosecuted for doing what comes naturally from using digital networks — copying and remixing for no commercial gain or monetary exchange — while exploring the sharing economy and still protecting existing business — these are great reasons to start or continue releasing works under a NC license. It is little surprise that major music and book publishers’ use of CC licensing thus far has almost exclusively been of the NC variety.

How to participate in the discussion

There are a variety of ways you can participate in discussion of this study, the future of CC NC licenses and accompanying material, and future research on this and other topics related to voluntary sharing:

Thanks to everyone who has contributed in any way to this work!

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43 thoughts on “Defining Noncommercial report published”

  1. I still have a problem understanding where CC falls under the YouTube/Vimeo case though.

    For example, can a CC-BY-NC song be used with a CC-BY-NC video by another artist and uploaded on a site like YouTube and Vimeo? Even if the video artist doesn’t make any money out of his video, Youtube/Vimeo might make money because of their ads (although, according to news reports so far, the ad money barely cover bandwidth needs since not even Youtube is actually financially successful).

    So what do we do with that case? Is uploading to Youtube/Vimeo considered commercial usage when the video that uses a random CC-BY-NC track is non-commercial?

    See, I took part in your survey, added my 2 cents about the topic, but I still don’t have an answer to this. Reading the above article made me more confused too.

  2. Good to hear that the NC report has finally been published. Personally, I find the ambiguity of the NC terms a bit of a hassle, so I prefer to use CC-BY-SA for my creative works. I’m come to the conclusion that I am ok with others potentially making money off of my CC-licensed works as long as the downstream derivative works remain freely available under copyleft terms.

  3. Let me preface by saying I am not a lawyer. My impression, however, is that by having an ambiguous definition of “non-commercial” that it will take the teeth out of any potential legal action. I would therefore prefer a strong, strict definition to one that is more open to interpretation.

    If, for instance, NC permits recuperation of costs (i.e. “you just pay for the CD media”), a quandary exists similar to the example of YouTube earlier in the discussion. Let’s say I order a shirt from CafePress with a NC cartoon printed on it then sell it “at cost”, CafePress makes a profit. But if I run a T-shirt shop and print the same cartoon and sell it “at cost” for the same as what I’d charge someone else for me to make it, I turn a profit. I can see this nuance as being a nightmare to discern (i.e. is it okay if the T-shirt shop you bought it from is your second cousin’s wife? or what if your brother works for CafePress?).

    Because the CC license is non-exclusive, one can always license individually or separately for these kinds of “small run” cases. But if the NC license has no teeth in court, it is essentially worthless.

  5. @Eugenia

    From my point of view it is the remixer that is the user of the work that they host the result on a site that happens to have ads as the price for hosting isn’t important.

    Now I really don’t like News International, I mean I really do not like News International, and one of the reasons I use NC is so that companies like that don’t get to use my stuff, but I’m not going to penalize some kid for using an NC work on their MySpace page.

  6. Eugenia,

    The above has an answer: do things you’re not confused about. For example, post the video to a site without ads, say archive.org, or find content to incorporate in your video under a non-NC license, or ask the licensor.

  7. are commercial purposes always profit-making?
    perhaps an additional layer would be about for non-profit purposes?

  8. I agree with lwymindy, there should be an additional layer for non-profit use.

    But, in saying that, on my netlabel i run ads on it and my contributers get a share of the monies that coming in from them (even though there is little or none coming in).

    I feel that its fair to give my contributers a share even if my hosting costs are never covered.

  9. So you guys study the issue for over an year and come up with a huge report that actually FAILS to define with any degree what clarity what non-commercial is? After reading the report carefully, I have to say it is a massive disappointment.

  11. Incredibly useful report, thank you for making it happen!

    The real meat of it, for me, was in the charts at pages 59 to 65, where the ranges of opinion are expressed visually.

    What I took away from that chart on page 65 is there are only two uses of NC licensed material where a sizable number of people in the surveyed group thought it more than 50% permissible to use NC content, namely:

    1) personal use
    2) a charity/non-for-profit organization

    and even for those two, “a charity” fell more on the “definitely commercial use” side than not.

    page 62 adds as also OK for NC:

    * course materials for a non-tuition school.

    That’s the complete list. All other uses of NC licensed content fell over the over-50% definitely-commercial mark.

    To summarize, the current not-very-debatable meaning of the non-commercial clause in CC licenses is:

    1) ok for personal use
    2) ok for coursework at a non-tuition university
    3) probably ok for a charity/non-commercial organization

    What I find interesting is that in discussions with lawyers about the NC clause, this was mostly the same opinion, with the exception that the chart on page 62 asserts that Government/state use would be likely commercial, whereas lawyers I spoke to thought that was an ironclad example of non-commercial.

    Thanks again!

    -John from Magnatune

  13. John,

    While those circumstances are clear and nicely laid out from your perspective the questions of what is NC will still exist for your customers perspective.

    I am a filmmaker considering making a NC feature that uses NC music. I could do that personally, but seeing as I will need to raise funds and be accountable for any problems I will more likely create a not-for-profit company. I complete my film and decide to release it. Whatever distribution model I choose except possibly distribution through archive.org the distributor will want to take a profit on. Whether that’s advertising on youtube or ticket prices at the theatre or markup from cutting and selling DVD’s.
    So they’re making a commercial profit (and I’m happy for them to do so as it means my work gets shown raises more investment for my next film) I also still control those sources to be copyleft (people can take camcorders into the theatre or copy the DVD or download the youtube Video) but then you as the NC music producer are having your license terms breached. Who are you going to come after, me for releasing the work into the wild (knowing that commercialisation of the work was a possibility) or all these countless corporations and individuals who are carrying out the violations?

    If it’s me then I’m as well going for pofit and selling the film through commercial channels, and only making the film NC 15 years later once all the sales contracts have expired. That’s not the product I want to make, but it’ll be the only way to cover licensing costs of all the NC music/soundeffects/art/etc that I want to populate my film with.

  14. The definition of noncommercial is still very subjective – every site ‘converts’ their traffic one way or another, judging by travel levels, amount of advertising, legal entity/corporate status might be more definitive?

  15. As a developer I use lot of open sources and CC-NC codes. I work for a for-profit/commercial company. Software I wrote are mainly use internally by our employees. We never sell our software. Public has no access to use it. Am I violating the CC-NC license?

  17. quoting Joe Developer:
    We never sell our software. Public has no access to use it. Am I violating the CC-NC license?

    This is the point really conflictive that no one seems able to clarify. I agree with Dalila that after this poll I was looking for something clarifying things and not only put at the showroom the hassle that all we know.

    Particular examples covering the diverse range of cases and pronouncing about what would be reasonable noncommercial usage or not would be useful. The expression of the doubt only is still constructive, but completely useless from what I was looking for.
    Thanks anyway for your work!
    Raimon

  18. Jason Olhefsky example add another point to the noncommercial use. If NC permit recuperation cost wouldn’t it be okay if we as a website owner when using CC materials, try to recuperate our own hosting etc cost through ads displayed on our personal site?

  19. I have a blog with Adsense ads on it. It currently makes way less than server and domain costs.
    Does that blog constitute commercial use?
    Because it is not “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation” but rather for fun.

  20. I’ve wondered for a long time what became of that study, and it seems I am disappointed. I got what I wanted to know from this article. I really wanted to see a new license that would be more open than NC.

    My definition of commercial in short is when something is being sold, directly requiring money from the user for what they want. I don’t mind people using my works if they get ad revenue but ask no money of their users. But this NC license makes that a lot of work for me (relatively). I want exceptions everywhere among my works, but specifying those exceptions is a lot more work than CC is intended for.

    I don’t really understand why it was completely dropped, the idea of introducing a new license. I pretty much expected that logic would favor not changing NC itself, but I don’t see enough reasoning presented to avoid coming up with some new NS [no-sell] license.

  21. I’m gonna be honest, i dont care if anyone puts a video up that makes use of CC BY-NC or BY-NC-SA music/video that i have created up onto YouTube aslong as they arent YouTube partners.

    Youtube partners are different as they are placing the adverts directly on the video, Thus making money from it. I dont care about the ads on the web page as they are there to cover the cost of hosting Millions (possible billions) of video’s that get uploaded to it.

    So, why would i care about smaller sites doing the same thing which earn little to NO money from the ads.

    Aslong as the attribution is there to advertise my site and give posible SEO page rank, then go right ahead and use my own works for that purpose.

  22. I have a question. The report just confused me, rather frustrated me, as I wanted a “definition” not all the details of the study.

    What I want to know is…

    If I build a tutorial video for a site, that is a paid membership site, that people use to build and sell monetized websites, but my video uses say one of NIN’s CC BY NC SA liscened tracks as background music (so my tutorial doesn’t bore people to tears)… but I don’t make money from the video, it’s not on any site with ads, but I include it in the owner of the sites “tutorial” section (because the internal video has sensitive intellectual property that he doesn’t want others to see if they are not a member), and he doesn’t make money from the video, it’s there to help people understand how the system works- nothing more). I’d have to let him upload it to the site as I have no way to protect it from the public eyes)… Is this breaking the liscense agreement? even if My name, not the owner, is advertized as the creator of the video and I atribute the author in the video.

    Can anyone tell me how this works and if this is outside the line? Again, no profit is made from the video but I’m wondering if the fact that you can’t download and see or change and redistribute etc.. the video, does this violate the license?

    Thank you anyone for your reply.

    Jerrico

  23. I am about to publish a book of short stories, reworkings of myths and traditional tales. I would be perfectly happy for anyone to use one of the stories, even commercially. In fact I would welcome it as I would like the stories to have wide circulation.

    But if I publish under a CC licence that permits commercial use, doesn’t that mean that someone could publish the whole book for themselves and so take any profit? I would not be happy with that at all.

    Might the solution be to publish the book under the usual copyright restrictions but apply a CC licence (attribution share-alike) for each individual story?

    I would welcome advice.

  24. Frankly, I never really understood the rules of ‘non-commercial’ CC. Is it really as strict as I think it is? E.g. if you want to use a photo that’s under noncommercial license, you can’t put it on any website that has any sort of ads on it.

  25. Speaking generally, does the NC license mean, say, a radio station that has ads can’t play songs with the NC license? What if there are banner ads in the site?

  26. I’m wondering how ‘Non-Commercial’ applies to flash movie and game portals, such as New Grounds. The primary intention (which is as worded in the legaliese) is to entertain and to share a story or game. It so happens that many of these portals also pay the creator ad revenue. The creator of the flash project IS getting money for it, but that is not the PRIMARY intention.

    The current wording is vague, and I would like to see something a lot more clear before I seriously start looking into my options.(My interests are primarily looking at music and sound files)

  27. Justin (and several others above wanting to use licensed works),

    There’s an easy answer: use music and sound files released under CC BY or CC BY-SA. Then NC is a non-issue. See ‘recommendations’ in the post above.

    Daniel Cohen,

    Presumably someone could make their own collection of all of the BY-SA stories you publish, and sell that collection. If you’re ok with that, great. If not, you’re still probably on the right track — perhaps selectively license certain stories under BY-SA, and see what happens. You can always license others when you’re comfortable.

  28. I’m still not clear.

    I would like to use an image for a webpage background on a site for a spiritual jazz singer. The image would not be sold to anyone. No advertisements on the site but she does sell her CDs. Is this considered “Commercial Use” ?

    What complicates this — at least on Creative Commons — is that it is sometimes very difficult to reach the photographer in order to check if the use is okay.

    Any help would be appreciated.

  29. What about use on a news website? We technically have a product, and we sell adspace, but I’m a little iffy.

  30. I agree about the disappointment. Here we are many months later and all I see here are questions and more questions. Not even any case citations that might offer advice on how the courts interpret “non-commercial”. In my own experience, there is no clear interpretation of what this means — or rather there are as many understandings as people you ask.

    Given the great grey fuzziness of this all, is the license worthless as a legal document?

  31. Glenn, Henry,

    If you’re not sure whether your use is commercial, don’t use NC licensed content. That’s simple. There are plenty of works under CC licenses without the NC condition you can use.

    Kevin,

    Even with the most restrictive possible interpretation of NC possible, the licenses give considerably more permissions than present by default in copyright. Filesharing is unambiguously allowed, for instance.

    CC has just started a public discussion of what its version 4.0 licenses should be. If you (anyone reading this) can improve the definition, wants us to retire the NC licenses, or anything in between, please visit http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/NonCommercial and let us know how and why.

    Thanks!
    Mike

  32. My advice to most creative artists: No one knows who most of you are. You NEED the publicity that you can get from people using your works (assuming attribution, of course).

    You have a piece of great jazz music. I create a video about fantastic romantic getaways, and I use your music for background – again, with attribution. I sell 10,000 copies for $19.95. After prorating my production costs, advertising costs, distribution costs and overhead, I make a buck a copy. How much of that do you think your music was worth? 20 cents? Okay, it’s less, but I’ll go with 20 cents. I owe you $2000.

    But I’ve exposed your name and your music to 10,000 people – or, if sharing (and my video WILL be shared, I know) is factored in, perhaps 20,000 or more?

    Now, let’s see…what should I charge YOU for that? Many of you don’t even know what publicity costs, but I’ll conservatively say it was worth at least 20 cents a head for this exposure.

    I think we should call it a wash. After all, I didn’t create a bunch of CDs and sell your music. Your music was incidental to the video that I created, at no small expense to me. But, I do acknowledge the value of your music and for that value I gave you exposure. Every time someone watches my video, they’re going to hear you, and they’re going to see your name.

    The math here is a bit contrived, I acknowledge, but I don’t think it’s far off, and I think you should be able to understand the concept whether you’d quibble over a nickel one way or another.

    BY-SA. No other license really makes sense for you unless you honestly can say that you’re a well-established, widely-recognized artist. You’re getting plenty back in return.

  33. For me, I would like a licensing format that allows sharing of my content on a commercial website, but does not permit reseller rights (i.e. to profit directly from selling my material), as well as a license option that does allow reseller rights where relevant.

    At the moment I think ‘commercial use’ is too broad & too vague a term & can be open to misinterpretation.

  34. So, let’s say I Photoshop a few (public) images from Photobucket, and I put them in a picture I create from Photoshop, and display it in a video for YouTube (like, for example, an introductory sequence to a video). Let’s say I am a YouTube partner. Would that be violating noncommercial use? This is all hypothetical.

  35. I have this App in the iTunes Store. It is a picture based flashcard learning app for scientific names of species. The App does not contain any images and costs 2 $.

    After the user installed the app, he selects content that he wants to learn and the app downloads a bunch of images, some of these images are CC-NC. Do you think this is illegal?

  36. What if a company does a podcast let’s say to help people, just giving information for free.

    Even though the company itself is obviously commercial, the podcast’s purpose isn’t making money but to give information. There’s no fee in listening it and there’s no advertising, probably only a mention who’s producing the podcast.

    So my question is basically is everything a company makes always commercial? There are companies out there that have revenue stream on one side and non-profit actions on another.

  37. I came back to this post today to look up a reference, glad to see people still commenting 3.5 years later.

    Brian: Well said.

    Sharon: Fair point. Best you can do now is probably to use NC as it exists: lots of “commercial” sites will use anyway (and lots of “noncommercial” sites won’t, but that’s the price you pay for using NC), and profiting from directly selling licensed works is the one thing unambiguously not permitted.

    Ian: YouTube partner means you’re sharing advertising revenue with them, right? If so, there’s your answer: the use is pretty clearly directed at gaining monetary compensation.

    Michael: No idea, but given you’re doing some kind of content search, I’d guess, why not just stick to non-NC images? There are millions. You don’t gain much by attempting to walk a fine line around NC.

    Aarne: The NC term doesn’t specify that everything a for-profit does is always commercial. But as with previous answer, why bother attempting to walk fine line? There are plenty of songs and sounds to use under fully free licenses you can use in your podcast.

  38. Mike: Thank you for your answer. Yeah i could do that, but most of the content sadly is NC. So the app would not be much use anymore.

  39. I have an internet radio station and want to play variety of music. I have banner ads on the site, but as of yet do not have audio ads. Can I still use NC work?

    Sorry I am new, and I want to make sure all this is squared away. Currently I do have songs that can be used but want to make sure for other ones.

    Thank you.

  40. Hi Helen. We can’t make judgment calls in cases like this. Your best bet might be to contact the creators directly, or stick to songs that allow commercial use.

  41. i always had the impression that when i license my music under non-commercial that no party may distribute my work for money without first being granted permission by me,
    is that right?

    small example:
    my band just finished a record, a small non-profit d.i.y-punkrock label has paied alle the production costs and has supplied us with a reasonable amount of free copiies for ourselves,

    the album will be sold on a low price which will refinance the expenses of our small d.i.y.-label, any surplus will be used to support other small d.i.y.-bands with their releases,

    we consider this lowlevel distribution to be a noncommercial use of our music that is in our view the best possible way to benefit the d.i.y-scene of which we are part of and have therefor agreed to the distribution by our label,
    does this conflict with the NC-license?

  42. I intend to use a program that has a creative commons non-commercial use license to produce videos in which i will earn from advertisements that are automatically placed by google, in youtube, that’s why i ended up here.

    Polls from what people think commercial and non commercial mean, mean nothing to me, if i asked people to vote on the sex of a chicken, the chicken wouldn’t change sex if most people were wrong, in the same way that what a non-commercial license means for people is irrelevant because people may be wrong and because people can change opinion, which would lead to the meaning of a creative commons non-commercial license changing according to country, person, situations, feelings, year, etc… a huge mess, meaning, people that have a non commercial license don’t even know what is that license supposed to be or to do if we are relying on polls to define things.

    And this “defining non-commercial” thing seems really nice, but it’s missing the “defining” part as i was expecting to see some sort of definition.

    If baffles me how could a project like this get so far with this big of a hole in it.

    What is a non-commercial use has to be defined by the license issuers, in this case, creative commons.

    Excerpt of the definition of “commercial” by Oxford Dictionaries that is relevant to this “youtube thing” is “…having profit rather than artistic or other value as a primary aim: …”.
    Other reputable dictionaries back this up, it seems like a fuzzy area but it also seems like it doesn’t apply to me, making money isn’t my primary goal but if i can make some it’ll be good.

    Are donations classified as commercial too? (rhetorical question, by definitions widely accepted by reputable sources they are not) I could just ask for donations instead of displaying ads and use the same software that has non-commercial use and still make money out of it.

    P.S. Stop demonizing copyright, copyright isn’t only an “all rights reserved” thing, copyright is whatever the user itself wants it to be, that’s why i don’t need to research for copyright as the users will usually indicate what i can and can’t do with their work in some kind of note attached to it, on the other hand there’s creative commons, people just put this garbage CC stamp all over their work and don’t say what we can and can’t do with it, then when we google for this in order to get informed (like i did), we end up leaving with no concrete answers, creative commons, thanks for making things sooo much easier and clearer for both users and producers, really.

  43. What I want to know is how broadly is ‘non-commercial’ defined? I plan on holding a online funding drive to self-publish a tabletop role-playing game. It sure would be nice to have music playing for the video presentation. However, I am not selling MUSIC, I’m selling a frikkin pencil-n-paper roleplaying game. Attribution, sure, that goes without saying. However, since this is for funding something (ie – commercial in the basic sense) does that mean that the Non-Commercial applies? Its entirely unrelated to the music industry and in fact spreads the artists music to a corner he/she may not have had any access to at all.

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CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
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Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • for any purpose, even commercially.
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
#####EOF##### Photography - Creative Commons

Photography

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The internet and technology have changed how people access images, and photographers are responding by employing new methods to reach audiences. These methods include personal websites, social media tools, photo-sharing platforms and communities, and tools such as Creative Commons licenses that enable easy sharing and reuse of creative works.

CC licenses are a flexible way to share images while building on the strong foundation of traditional copyright law. Simply put, Creative Commons licenses allow the shift from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved,” enabling you to share your images under terms of your own choosing. This gives you control over distribution, and the non-exclusivity of the licenses means you can retain all commercial rights if desired.

Photographers using CC licenses gain new audiences for their work on photo-sharing platforms like Flickr and communities like Wikipedia. Mohamed Nanabhay, Head of Online, Al Jazeera English, writes:

“When launching our [CC] repository, we had thought that it would be a key resource for anyone producing content on the war and that it would primarily be used by other news organisations and documentary filmmakers. What we saw was both surprising and delightful. Soon after posting our first video, Wikipedia editors had extracted images to enhance the encyclopedia entries on the War on Gaza. Soon thereafter educators, filmmakers, video game developers, aid agencies and music video producers all used and built upon our footage.”

Wikipedia is a heavily-trafficked website with over 400 million unique visitors a month. Flickr contains over 200 million CC-licensed photos, establishing it as the Web’s single largest source of CC-licensed content.

In 2008, DigitalPhotoPro published an article on the use of CC licenses by professional photographers with advice for those thinking of using CC themselves.

Photographers using CC licenses

Jonathan Worth

“Creative Commons enables me to use existing architecture really smoothly and to address the digital natives’ social media habits. The mode of information is the same, but the mode of distribution has changed. We don’t have all the answers, but CC lets me choose my flavor and helps me take advantage of the things working against me.”

British photographer Jonathan Worth’s work hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. He teaches photography at Coventry University in the U.K, and his course materials are released as open educational resources (OER) under CC BY-SA. He has photographed actors Colin Firth, Rachel Hunter, Jude Law and Heath Ledger. He is also one of an emerging group of photographers experimenting with sustainable working practices for professional image makers in the digital age. Jonathan Worth has been featured in:

  • The Telegraph - How the Power of Open can benefit photographers
  • BBC News - "Photographer Jonathan Worth explained that Creative Commons allowed him to sell his work for commercial use while still giving it free to individuals who wanted it for other reasons."
  • BBC News - "Photography and open education"
  • The Power of Open - Stories of creators sharing knowledge, art, & data using Creative Commons

Lan Bui

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Lan Bui "makes media." From photography of tech celebrities (Veronica Belmont, Zadi Diaz, Casey McKinnon) and The Ninja to videos for professionals and events (Comic Con and Pixelodeon), Lan (with help from his brother Vu) makes them all from start to finish. Lan echoes the thoughts of other artists using Creative Commons; the idea that your work is, in a way, an advertisement for yourself and future work. Lan expresses this in this way: "I think that people pay me for my time and talent, not for the actual images I deliver."

MacArthur Fellows

Photos and video pertaining to the MacArthur Fellows by the MacArthur Foundation is licensed CC BY.

Monkeyc.net

{{#show: Case_Studies/Monkeyc.net|?Image Header|link=none}}

Monkeyc.net is the moniker of John Harvey, a Brisbane-based former photojournalist who licenses his Flickr photo stream under Creative Commons. John is an active member of the Flickr community, having first uploaded a photo on 26 September 2004 and now sporting a collection of close to 1,000 images, and encourages others to engage likewise. Several of John’s photographs have been featured on Flickr’s ‘Explore’ page, as an indication of their popularity in the Flickr community.

Vinoth Chandar

Vinoth Chandar is a professional photographer who releases many of his photographs under the Creative Commons Attribution licence, saying that "I use [the] Attribution Creative Commons licence for all my photos because I want everybody to use my photo and credit me ... This way, my photos reach every corner of the world without any effort from my side except taking the photos and uploading it to Flickr."[1]

One example he used of the exposure provided by free culture licensing was the use of one of his photos for the cover of a popular Italian magazine. "I am an Indian and how else in the world can an Indian photographer expect his photo to be published in an Italian magazine? CC licence made this possible."[2]

Enforceability of CC licenses in photography

CC licenses have been upheld in several court cases around the world. A few of these cases pertain specifically to CC-licensed images.

  • In Curry v. Audax, Adam Curry, a former MTV VJ and one of the pioneers of podcasting, published photos onto his Flickr account under a BY-NC-SA license. A Dutch tabloid reprinted four of the photos in a story about the Curry family's public persona verses real private life. Curry sued the tabloid for violating the portrait rights of his family and for copyright violation over the improper user of his Flickr photos. The Dutch court held that, in the future, the tabloid could not use any of the photos from Flickr in the future unless under the terms of the photos' CC license or with permission from Curry.
  • In Gerlach vs. DVU, Gerlach took a picture of the German politician Thilo Sarrazin at a public event and published it online under the Creative Commons license BY SA 3.0 Unported. Later the DVU, a German political party used the picture on their website without the plaintiff's name, the license notice or any other requirement of the license. The applicant sent a notice and takedown letter to which the party didn't react. Subsequently the applicant sought preliminary injunction before the Disctrict Court of Berlin against the unauthorized publication of the picture. The District Court of Berlin granted the injunction because the applicant had successfully established prima-facie evidence of authorship, of the licensing and of the breach of the license.
  • In Avi Re’uveni v. Mapa inc., plaintiffs uploaded photographs to Flickr and and offered them under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. The defendant made a collage from the plaintiffs’ and other photographs and sold them without attribution. The court found the defendant guilty of copyright infringement. The defendant claimed ignorance of the copyright and license, but the court found that this did not matter.

Photo-sharing sites that have enabled CC licenses

Flickr

{{#show: Case_Studies/Flickr|?Image Header|link=none}}

Flickr was one of the first major online communities to incorporate Creative Commons licensing options into its user interface, giving photographers around the world the easy ability to share photos on terms of their choosing. As the Flickr community grew, so did the number of CC-licensed images — currently there are well over 200 million on the site — establishing Flickr as the Web’s single largest source of CC-licensed content.

DeviantART

{{#show: Case_Studies/DeviantART|?Image Header|link=none}}

deviantART is an online community dedicated to showcasing art as prints, videos and literature. CC license options are built into deviantArt's UI, allowing users to set the permissions they want their works to carry. Naturally, different users choose different options for their works, including All Rights Reserved.

Fotopedia

Fotopedia is a breathtaking application for the iPhone and iPad. The app builds on the concept of a coffee table book, updating and enhancing the browsing experience for the web. This project is possible thanks to Creative Commons, as over 18,000 of the pictures in Fotopedia Heritage book are under one of the CC licenses. The pictures come from all around the world; as individual photographers and organizations license their high quality photos under Creative Commons, the book will only grow as a community contributed and shareable resource.

National Library of Australia: 'Click and Flick'

{{#show: Case_Studies/National_Library_of_Australia_'Click_and_Flick'|?Image Header|link=none}}

'Click and Flick' is a National Library of Australia (NLA) initiative to open their online pictorial gateway, PictureAustralia, to contributions from the Australian public. PictureAustralia encourages people to make their material available on the archive under the CC licenses, as part of two dedicated Flickr image pools: ‘PictureAustralia: Ourtown’ and ‘PictureAustralia: People, Places and Events’.

Newsbank Image

{{#show: Case_Studies/Newsbank_Image|?Image Header|link=none}}

Newsbank Image is one of South Korea's largest and most comprehensive photo-archives. The photograph archive website provides images produced by Media companies, photographers as well as web-friendly versions containing watermarks, original images, all which maintain the marking of original creators. Users can choose to upload their photos under CC licenses.

Culture.si

{{#show: Case_Studies/Culture.si|?Image Header|link=none}}

A comprehensive online guide to Slovene culture, Culture.si covers contemporary art, culture, and heritage in Slovenia. Over 2,300 articles in English and the fastest growing independent free image bank (currently over 1,500 images) are offered for reuse under Creative Commons licenses.

How To Publish photos in an online community

One way to increase visibility and access to your photos is to share it with an existing community that has enabled CC licensing, making it easy for you to indicate the license along with other information, such as who to attribute. In addition, search engines like Google and Yahoo! will index your work as CC licensed if the metadata is properly attached. See Publish/Images for more info.

Finding CC-licensed photos

Thanks to the machine-readability of CC licenses, CC-licensed images can be found via:

  • Google Advanced Image Search by specifying options under "Usage Rights"
  • Yahoo! Advanced Image Search by specifying options under "Creative Commons License"
  • It appears that Yahoo Advanced Image Search no longer offers this option. Can anyone else confirm this?
  • Google Docs, where Google Image Search has been integrated
  • CC Search Portal, which is not a search engine, but a tool that offers convenient access to search services provided by independent organizations, such as Flickr, Google, and Wikimedia Commons (media repository for articles featured on Wikipedia).

Related resources

References

<references>

  1. ↑ http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/16/creative-commons-gallery
  2. ↑ http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/16/creative-commons-gallery
Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Photography&oldid=101823"

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#####EOF##### Contact - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Contact

Contact

Many questions are answered in our FAQ and you can find out more about our global affiliate network here. If you are unable to find your answer via our FAQ or website please be in touch regarding our website, general information or press at: info@creativecommons.org.

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Please note: we are a distributed team working all over the world. We don’t have an office, but if you need to mail us correspondence, please send it to:

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Or if you would like to mail us a donation, please send it to this address instead:

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Our phone number is:

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The best way to contact us is to write to info@creativecommons.org.

Reporting bugs and problems with a Creative Commons website, license, wiki or project webpage

You can write to us using the form above, or you can file an issue on GitHub.

 

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If you have reason to believe that any material or activity on a site controlled or operated by Creative Commons (such as creativecommons.org or wiki.creativecommons.org is infringing of the right(s) owned by you or someone else, for whom you have authority to act, please follow our DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure.

Complaints about financial impropriety and other misconduct

As a nonprofit entity, the integrity of CC’s financial information is paramount. We have adopted Codes of Conduct that prohibit financial impropriety and protect whistle blowers who bring such irregularities to our attention. Additionally, we take seriously other misconduct that may involve the violation of our policies including, but not limited to, harassment.

If you are aware of any conduct prohibited by law or by our policies, you are encouraged to make a complaint, anonymously if you wish, to the members of the company’s Audit Committee. The email address for such complaints is audit@creativecommons.org which will forward your message automatically to the members of the Audit Committee. The Committee members are identified on our Board page. You may also submit a complaint by post or fax to the attention of “Audit Committee” at our Mountain View address.

Creative Commons is a Massachusetts-chartered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable corporation. For more information, see the corporate charter, by-laws, most recent tax return and most recent audited financial statement.

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Generic — CC BY-NC 2.5
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Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.5)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

A new version of this license is available. You should use it for new works, and you may want to relicense existing works under it. No works are automatically put under the new license, however.

#####EOF##### Considerations for licensors and licensees - Creative Commons

Considerations for licensors and licensees

From Creative Commons
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The following list sets out some basic things that you should think about before you apply a Creative Commons license to your material, or use Creative Commons-licensed material. It is not an exhaustive list. If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to post to one of our email discussion lists, send us an email at info@creativecommons.org, send an email to one of our country project leads or obtain your own legal advice.

Considerations for Licensors - if you are licensing your own work
Considerations for Licensees - if you are using someone else's work

Contents

Considerations for licensors

Irrevocability

Remember the license may not be revoked.

Once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright and similar rights, even if you later stop distributing it.

Type of material

Make sure the material is appropriate for CC licensing.

CC licenses are appropriate for all types of content you want to share publicly, except software and hardware.

Specify precisely what it is you are licensing.

Any given work has multiple elements; e.g., text, images, music. Make sure to clearly mark or indicate in a notice which of those are covered by the license.

Nature and adequacy of rights

Make sure the material is subject to copyright or similar rights.

CC licenses are operative only where copyright, sui generis database rights, or other rights closely related to copyright come into play. They should not be applied to material in the public domain.

Clear rights needed to use the material.

If the material includes rights held by others, make sure to get permission to sublicense those rights under the CC license. If you created the material in the scope of your employment or as a work-for-hire, you may not be the holder of the rights and may need to get permission before applying a CC license.

Indicate rights not covered by the license.

Prominently mark or indicate in a notice any rights held by third parties, such as publicity or trademark rights. This includes any content you used under exceptions or limitations to copyright, and any third party content used under another license (even if it is the same CC license as you applied).

Type of license

Think about how you want the material to be used.

Consider what you hope to achieve by sharing your work when determining which of the six CC licenses to apply. For example, if you want it to appear in a Wikipedia article, it must be licensed using BY-SA or a compatible license.

Consider any obligations that may affect what type of license you apply.

Think about any obligations you have, such as licensing requirements from a funding source, employment agreement, or limitations on your ability to use a CC license imposed by a collecting society, that dictate which (if any) of the six CC licenses you can apply.

Additional provisions

Consider offering a warranty.

If you are confident you have cleared all rights in the material, you may choose to warrant that the work does not violate the rights of any third parties.

Specify additional permissions, if desired.

You have the option of granting permissions above and beyond what the license allows; for example, allowing licensees to translate ND-licensed material. If so, consider using CC+ to indicate the additional permissions offered.

Special preferences

Specify attribution information if desired.

You may indicate particular attribution parties, a URI for the material, and other attribution information for licensees to retain.

Indicate any non binding requests.

You may ask licensees to adhere to your special requests, such as marking or describing changes they make to your material.

Considerations for licensees

Understand the license.

Read the legal code, not just the deed.

The human-readable deed is a summary of, but not a replacement for, the legal code. It does not explain everything you need to know before using licensed material.

Make sure the license grants permission for what you want to do.

There are six different CC licenses. Two of the licenses prohibit the sharing of adaptations (BY-ND, BY-NC-ND); three prohibit commercial uses (BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA), and two require adaptations be licensed under the same license (BY-SA, BY-NC-SA).

Take note of the particular version of the license.

The current version (4.0) differs from prior versions in important respects. Similarly, the jurisdiction ports may differ in certain terms, such as dispute resolution and choice of law.

Scope of the license.

Pay attention to what exactly is being licensed.

The licensor should have marked which elements of the work are subject to the license and which are not. For those elements that are not subject to the license, you may need separate permission.

Consider clearing rights if you are concerned.

The license does not contain a warranty, so if you think there may be third party rights in the material, you may want to clear those rights in advance.

Some uses of licensed material do not require permission under the license.

If the use you want to make of a work falls within an exception or limitation to copyright or similar rights, you may do so. Those uses are unregulated by the license.

Know your obligations.

Provide attribution.

All CC licenses require you provide attribution and mark the material when you share it publicly. The specific requirements vary slightly across versions.

Do not restrict others from exercising rights under the license.

All CC licenses prohibit you from applying effective technological measures or imposing legal terms that would prevent others from doing what the license permits.

Determine what, if anything, you can do with adaptations you make.

Depending on what type of license is applied, you are limited in whether you can share your adaptation and if so, what license you can apply to your contributions.

Termination is automatic.

All CC licenses terminate automatically when you fail to comply with its terms. If the material is under a 4.0 license, you must fix the problem within 30 days of discovery if you want your rights automatically reinstated.

Consider licensor preferences.

Consider complying with non-binding requests by the licensor.

The licensor may make special requests when you use the material. We recommend you do so when reasonable, but that is your option and not your obligation.

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#####EOF##### Announcing Plays Well With Others, a new podcast about the Art and Science of Collaboration - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > About CC > Announcing Plays Well With Others, a new podcast about the Art and Science of Collaboration

Announcing Plays Well With Others, a new podcast about the Art and Science of Collaboration

I’m thrilled to share the first episode of our podcast, Plays Well with Others, with our community today. It’s about the art, science, and mechanics of collaboration.

Ryan Merkley

February 21, 2019

plays-well-with-othersI’m thrilled to share the first episode of our podcast, Plays Well with Others, with our community. It’s about the art, science, and mechanics of collaboration.

Ask yourself: How often have you walked into a room where you were about to work with colleagues, friends, or even strangers, and thought, “I’m going to focus on being a great collaborator today”? We spend so much time on leadership, and hardly any time on helping each other do great work together.

We hope to change that, in our own small way, with Plays Well with Others.

I couldn’t be more excited about this project — I’ve always wanted to produce radio journalism. I love interviewing people and helping them tell the best version of their stories. And it’s been a joy to work with my colleague and collaborator Eric Steuer on the podcast’s design and development. I’ve loved the opportunity to do creative work, and to work directly on something like this that is close to my heart, and that I feel is really good. We’re incredibly proud of how it’s turned out, and we hope you’ll enjoy it and learn something along the way.

Collaboration is a natural topic for me. My job at CC is all about making collaboration happen, and it’s been at the centre of my work for my entire career — across cultures and timezones. I’m fascinated by the things that we can only do together. Collective action — from the power of a union to build a more equitable world, to the ability of shared public investments to strengthen communities, to the potential of the commons to democratize knowledge — these ideas inspire me. It’s why I do what I do.

The first episode of our show focuses on the writer’s room on a comedy show. Our guests, Anne Lane and Wayne Federman, deserve our thanks for trusting us with their stories. They had no idea if what we were making would be any good, and there was no body of work to look at, since it was our first episode. Anne and Wayne were open and honest, and they gave us a view into a special room that very few people get to visit. But they also helped reveal insights into how collaboration works in groups: how to deal with the disappointment of watching your joke fall flat; the importance of picking up what other collaborators are laying down (“yes, and”); and an acknowledgment that many ideas, combined with the need to ship an episode, yields better results than writing alone in your basement.

I hope each episode yields such great insights — that’s certainly our goal. Our operating thesis is that digging into how collaboration really works might help us all become better collaborators ourselves.

Each episode homes in on an element of collaboration, told by some of the world’s great collaborators. We’ll publish one episode each month, and the first season will likely run around eight episodes. I hope you’ll join us along the way, and that we’ll all learn some new tactics, techniques, and approaches — together.

Listen now

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#####EOF##### Faces of the Commons Research - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Global Affiliate Network > Faces of the Commons Research

Faces of the Commons Research

The objective of the research is to reinforce the Creative Commons strategic process with a landscape of CC affiliates, their motivations, needs and potentials. The idea is to understand what the affiliates bring into the network: who they are, what motivates them to be part of it and what challenges they face. It is also important to understand how the network can help them to make their groundwork easier. It is also verified what sense of collective identity the affiliates have and what they perceive as greatest accomplishments of the global movement.

The research lead was Anna Mazgal, from Poland, with a series of researchers working with her from inside and outside the network.

Executive Summaries

Regional Reports

#####EOF##### Creative Commons Legal Code

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7. Termination

  1. This License and the rights granted hereunder will terminate automatically upon any breach by You of the terms of this License. Individuals or entities who have received Collective Works from You under this License, however, will not have their licenses terminated provided such individuals or entities remain in full compliance with those licenses. Sections 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will survive any termination of this License.
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  1. Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform the Work or a Collective Work, the Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License.
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#####EOF##### Education / OER - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Program areas > Education / OER

Education / OER

Brigham Young University faculty survey seeks to advance open education through academic libraries

With the internet, universal access to education is possible!

With the internet, universal access to education is possible, but its potential is hindered by increasingly restrictive copyright laws and incompatible technologies. The Open Education program at Creative Commons works to minimize these barriers, supporting the CC mission through education, advocacy and outreach on using the right licenses and open policies to maximize the benefits of open educational resources (OER) and the return on investment in publicly funded education resources. Our work cuts across all levels of education (primary – secondary – tertiary) and sectors of industry (non-profit – corporate – government).

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others.

What is OER

 

Resources

OER Commons

With over 120 major content partners, OER Commons provides a single point of access for over 30,000 items!

Encyclopedia of Life

eol_logo_globe-300x193An online collaborative encyclopedia providing global access to knowledge about biological life on earth.

plos_one-300x104PLOS

CC licensed non-profit publisher and advocacy organization focused on science and medicine.

More Resources

Projects

School of Open

The School offers free education opportunities for anyone to learn about the meaning and impact of open licenses and resources.

Open Policy Network

A coalition of experts who work to foster the creation, adoption, and implementation of open policies and practices that advance the public good.

 

Get Involved

We invite you to join us in our current efforts, or otherwise propose an idea for collaboration:

  • Join the CC Open Education Platform: Stay connected to global actions in open education resources, practice, and policy. Identify, plan and coordinate multi-national open education content, practices and policy projects to collaboratively solve education challenges with an amazing group of open education leaders from around the world.
  • Collaborate on a project: Interested in one of our projects above? Visit the project’s page directly to contribute. If you’d like to propose a new project idea, send a note to education@creativecommons.org.
  • License your work: Want to add a CC license to your project? Visit creativecommons.org/choose.
  • Fund OER: Want to incorporate CC into your education funding policy? See Funder Policies for how to understand and implement CC licenses.
  • Promote your project: Want to highlight your CC education project? Add it to our Case Studies wiki and tag it with ‘OER’. Then send a note to press@creativecommons.org.
  • Share open policies: Know of an open education policy in your jurisdiction? Add it to the OER Policy Registry — we need your help to make it a truly useful global resource.
  • Stay up-to-date: Subscribe to the CC blog or simply follow the OER section of the blog.
#####EOF##### ShareAlike compatibility analysis: FAL - Creative Commons

ShareAlike compatibility analysis: FAL

From Creative Commons
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The Free Art License (FAL) was published by Copyleft Attitude in 2000. The most recent version - version 1.3 - was published in 2007. The FAL is a copyright license with a ShareAlike mechanism and an attribution mechanism, and it does not violate the definition of Free Cultural Licenses. Thus, it satisfies the minimum criteria for compatibility set forth in our ShareAlike compatibility criteria. Overall, the FAL and BY-SA 4.0 are similar licenses, and the effect of each license as applied to a creative work is largely the same. Inevitably, there are differences between the two licenses, which are explained in more detail below.

Summary of comparison: FAL 1.3[1] and BY-SA 4.0

  • The tone and scope of the licenses differ. The FAL is written more broadly and in general terms, and is designed for use with creative works protected by copyright. BY-SA is written in more specific terms, and is designed for use with creative works as well as material restricted by other rights closely related to copyright, such as databases protected by a sui generis right. Although the FAL licenses only copyright, it does have a provision preventing licensors from using related rights to prevent exercise of the rights granted under the license. BY-SA, on the other hand, contains an open ended definition of the rights that are licensed, but expressly excludes certain types of rights from the reach of the license.[2] As to those rights that are licensed, BY-SA requires compliance with its conditions (attribution, ShareAlike) even when those rights, and not copyright, are implicated.
  • The specific attribution and marking requirements in the two licenses vary slightly. BY-SA has more total necessary elements for proper attribution, though it allows for flexibility depending on the context in which the work is used. Despite having fewer total attribution and marking requirements, the FAL does have some requirements that are not included in BY-SA, such as indicating where the licensed content can be found or how the licensed content was modified.
  • The FAL does not expressly address the application of digital rights management (DRM) or other effective technological measures to the licensed content by licensees, while BY-SA explicitly prohibits it. The FAL does, however, prohibit anything that has the effect of preventing others from exercising the freedoms granted by the license, which implicitly includes DRM.
  • Both licenses terminate automatically upon breach, but BY-SA is reinstated automatically if the breach is cured within 30 days of discovery. The FAL does not have an automatic reinstatement mechanism.
  • The FAL gives licensees the option to comply with a later version of the FAL, regardless of whether the work has been adapted. BY-SA allows licensees to comply with the conditions of future versions of BY-SA, but only if such version was applied to an adaptation of the work.
Features BY-SA 4.0 FAL
License scope Copyright, neighboring rights and sui generis database rights (SGDRs) (Sec 1d) Copyright only, but related rights may not challenge rights granted by license (Secs 2, 3)
Attribution trigger If there is applicable copyright in work, then when work or adaptation of work is shared. (Sec 3a)


If there are applicable SGDRs in work, then when all or a substantial portion of database contents is shared. (Sec 4c)

 When work (modified or not) is distributed (Sec 2.2)
Attribution removal clause Yes (Sec 3a3) No
Attribution elements
  1. creator and attribution parties
  2. copyright notice
  3. license notice
  4. disclaimer notice
  5. URI or link to the licensed material
  6. indicate and link to license

(Sec 3a1)
  1. name of author(s),
  2. attach license to work or indicate where license can be found
  3. info on where to access the originals

(Sec 2.2)
Special marking requirement if work is modified Yes (indicate if you modified and retain indication of previous modifications) (Sec 3a1B) Yes (indicate if you modified and what type of modifications were made) (Sec 2.3)
ShareAlike trigger When adaptation is shared (Sec 3b) When you distribute an adaptation (Sec 2.3)
ShareAlike scope Must ShareAlike contributions to adaptations (Sec 3b);


Must ShareAlike database if it incorporates substantial portion of database contents (Sec 4b)

 Must ShareAlike contributions to adaptations (Sec 2.3)


Must ShareAlike larger work if incorporate original in a way that makes it no longer accessible apart from larger work (Sec 4)
Source requirement None None
Effective technological measures May not be applied by licensees if they restrict access to the work or adaptations (Sec 2a5C)


Licensees have express permission to circumvent if applied by licensor (Sec 2a4)

 Not expressly mentioned, but may not be applied by licensees if they restrict users freedoms to copy (2.1), to distribute (2.2.) or to modify (2.3) the work
Moral rights Waived only to the extent necessary to allow the license to function. (Sec 2b1) Author’s rights may not challenge the rights granted by license. (Sec 3)
Termination Automatic upon breach (Sec 6a) Automatic upon breach (Sec 8)
Reinstatement after termination Requires express permission unless cured within 30 days of discovery of violation (Sec 6b) None
Reps & warranties Expressly disclaimed (Sec 5) Not mentioned
Choice of law None None
Option to comply with other license versions Yes, but limited. Licensees may choose to comply with a later version of BY-SA if such version is applied to an adaptation of the work.

(Secs 2a5B, 3b1)

 Yes, licensees may choose to comply with the version of the FAL that was applied to the copy distributed to them or a later version. (Sec 9)


Notes

  1. ↑ Note that CC reviewed the English language version of the FAL 1.3 to conduct this analysis.
  2. ↑ The rights expressly excluded from the license are moral rights, publicity, privacy and personality rights, and patent and trademark rights. The licensor waives and/or cannot assert all of these rights except patent and trademark rights.
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#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International — CC BY-ND 4.0
This page is available in the following languages: Languages
cc logo

Creative Commons License Deed

Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

  • for any purpose, even commercially.
  • The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
#####EOF##### Strategy and ideas - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Use & remix > Strategy and ideas

Strategy and ideas

This year, Creative Commons presented its 2016-2020 Organizational Strategy, reflecting over a year of intensive collaboration by CC’s global community. The insights and approaches contained within it have been influenced by hundreds of valuable discussions with our stakeholders, ranging from creators and open community leaders, to foundations and government officials.

video credits

This will be a transformative shift for Creative Commons — a new direction that is more focused and will have even greater impact. For more, we hope you’ll check out our series of blog posts: “We need to talk about sharing,” “Towards a vibrant, usable commons,” and “Let’s light up our global commons.” or read the full strategy.

We’d love to hear your ideas











Video credits

Art Direction and Motion Graphic Design by Bienvenido Cruz

Video license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0

Sound Elements

Subtitles

Please submit your subtitles in SRT format to info@creativecommons.org

 

#####EOF##### Content Directories - Creative Commons

Content Directories

From Creative Commons
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Welcome to the Content Directories

The following is a list of organizations and projects powered with Creative Commons licenses. Since Creative Commons does not maintain a database of content and does not store content, we would like CC-community members to help build a directory of projects to help spread the word about CC — hence the CC Content Directories wiki! Please help us fill it out!

What is an appropriate entry for Content Directories?

Many of the listings in the Content Directories are organizations that provide services using Creative Commons licenses. For example, Flickr.com is a photo-sharing website that allows users to license their photos under Creative Commons licenses. Flickr hosts millions of CC-licensed photos on its site.

Not certain that something should be added to this list? Add it to Talk:Content Directories For short lists of notable works, see books and films. For other notable uses, see the case studies project.

How to add an entry to Content Directories

To get started, see here. If you haven't done so already, you'll need to sign up for an account on this wiki. Users must be logged-in to post to the wiki.

Sound

Sound directory list

Video

Video directory list

Image

Image directory list

Other

Other directory list



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#####EOF##### Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons
English | Français

Frequently Asked Questions

2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.

  • Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
  • “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
  • Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
  • Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.

About CC

What is Creative Commons and what do you do?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.

Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as CC0, a public domain dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain before the expiration of copyright, and the Public Domain Mark, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain. Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for, discover, and use.

For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.

Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.

That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Data - Creative Commons

Data

From Creative Commons
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This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases
Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker's investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

How do I apply a CC legal tool to a database?

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our marking page for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights--but not copyright--are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

Which components of databases are protected by copyright?

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.[1] These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by copyright?

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

If my use of a database is restricted by copyright, how do I comply with the license?

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker's substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Notes

  1. ↑ Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).
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#####EOF##### Creative Commons Platforms - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Creative Commons Platforms

Creative Commons Platforms

Over 1 billion CC-licensed works exist across millions of websites. The majority are hosted on content platforms that provide CC license options for their users.

CC platforms make it easy for users to discover and collaborate on images, video, music, research and educational texts. This page highlights some of the best known platforms for sharing CC content. Content on these platforms is searchable and shareable across the web thanks to CC licenses.

  • Flickr
  • Bandcamp
  • Wikipedia
  • YouTube
  • 500px
  • Internet Archive
  • Vimeo
  • Wikimedia Commons
  • Free Music Archive
  • Skills Commons
  • Boundless
  • Europeana
  • Tribe of Noise
  • Jamendo
  • MIT OpenCourseware
  • PLOS

Enabling the CC license suite for your users

We work to transform content platforms into vibrant, creative spaces powered by users. Creative Commons Integration, from A to Z is a toolkit for platforms that want to address the increasing user demand for sharing content under CC licenses. The toolkit covers everything a platform needs to add the CC license suite, including aligning terms of service, integrating CC licenses into the user interface, and clearly communicating about the different license options for users. The toolkit is free for anyone to implement; please use it as an onboarding tool and contact us with any questions.

Learn More

Content collaborations: light up the Commons

For Creative Commons, the global commons is a platform for cooperation. The size of the commons is not as important as how the works it contains are shared and used. Adding the CC license suite is just the first step in joining a vast global network of creators, companies, and institutions who are working to build context, gratitude, and other mechanisms for collaboration into the commons. We work with platforms who share our values to design tools and services that light up this universe of content and creators. Part of this is working to increase cross-platform mobility of content; another part is tracking growth and use of the content itself and reporting on major trends in our annual State of the Commons report. In addition to growth of content and users, what is your platform seeking to do and how can CC help you do it? Please get in touch if you are interested in any of the following:

  • Improved search, curation, metatagging, and content analytics to better support creators and users of the commons.
  • Providing data to be featured in our annual State of the Commons report.
  • Development of tools and services that build context, gratitude, and other mechanisms for collaboration into the commons.
  • Salons and related events exploring the topics of gratitude, cooperation, and its expression in social networks.
  • Other collaborations that facilitate greater cooperation and engagement in the commons.

#####EOF##### License Versions - Creative Commons

License Versions

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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

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License Versions

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This page identifies the principal improvements to the Creative Commons license suite since the publication of the first licenses (version 1.0) in December 2002, through the current version 4.0, published November 2013. It also highlights important similarities and differences among the major license versions. For more information on using CC tools or works offered under Creative Commons licenses, consult the Frequently Asked Questions page. For a further historical perspective, you are invited to review deprecated CC legal tools identified on the retired legal tools page.

Please note that the summaries below may not reflect all changes between license versions or fully or accurately describe the differences between them. CC cannot provide legal advice, and what follows is not legal advice. What follows below is a general description of differences and similarities between the license versions, for general informational purposes only. Consult your own attorney if you are in need of legal advice.

Contents

License Versioning History

The chart below presents the major license versions, launch dates, and blog posts announcing major public comment periods, the launch of each license suite, and improvements. It does not reference the unfinished version 3.x (3.01 or 3.5) licenses, which did not include active public consultation and were never published. Version 4.0 is the premier, recommended Creative Commons license suite.

License version [1] Release date Calls for public comment Launch announcement Explanation of changes from prior version
1.0 2002 Dec 16 Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses
2.0 2004 May 25 Versioning -- Public Review Begins Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses
2.5 2005 June Tweaking CC's Standard Attribution Language -- An Invitation to Comment Comments Period Drawing to a close for Draft License Version 2.5
3.0 2007 Feb 23 Version 3.0 -- Public Discussion Launched Version 3.0 Launched Creative Commons Version 3.0 Licenses -- A Brief Explanation
4.0 2013 Nov 25 CC’s Next Generation Licenses — Welcome Version 4.0!
  1. ↑ Note that CC released a version 2.1 suite for jurisdictions like Spain, Australia, and Japan, whose localized ports of the 2.0 suite contained errors.

International License Development Process

Creative Commons develops, releases, and updates its public copyright licenses (and other legal tools) via an open and inclusive process of engagement with Creative Commons’ global network of attorneys and affiliates, as well as varied communities and constituents. The process culminates in the publication of the preferred, most up-to-date set of CC licenses for use around the world. Creative Commons released its latest version of the licenses in November 2013, the 4.0 international licenses.

The public license development process includes the publication of drafts, formal comment periods, and transparent decision-making. In recognition of its stewardship role, CC has also made public commitments about the development of its ShareAlike licenses: the Statement of Intent for Attribution-ShareAlike licenses following the publication of 3.0. After publication of 4.0, Creative Commons posted for public comment a continuation of that statement, but that has not been finalized for lack of demonstrated need or interest of the community.

While each version of licenses is drafted to conform with copyright law, the version 4.0 license suite includes significant improvements to ensure the licenses operate well internationally. Through extensive consultation with our global network of legal affiliates, the 4.0 international license suite is designed for use in jurisdictions around the world, without the need for localization beyond translation. CC has an established a policy for official translations of the 4.0 licenses as well as other legal tools.

Prior to version 4.0, Creative Commons granted permission to legal experts around the world to adapt (or “port”) the licenses where necessary to more fully align the text with the laws of different legal jurisdictions, and to translate the licenses to the local language(s). For the 4.0 suite, every effort has been made to avoid the need to port (though we will support official language translations). CC may consider requests to port the 4.0 suite in 2014, but only where a compelling need is demonstrated. If CC decides to consider requests, in no case will CC grant permission if the basis for doing so is to include a choice of law or if the change presented would otherwise alter the basic operation of the licenses. CC will post more information on the topic of porting in Q2 of 2014.

License Suite Versions

The chart below and linked explanations that follow detail some of the improvements and important similarities among Creative Commons license versions. Some of the explanations contain links to further information on the topic.

General license features

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
All international (unported/generic) and ported licenses
Nomenclature (for unported licenses) Generic license Generic license Generic license International (unported) license International license
License scope (beyond copyright)
Express permission granted under sui generis database rights No No No EU ports only Yes
License conditions apply to sui generis database rights No Few ports only Few ports only No Yes
Treatment of moral rights Not addressed Not addressed Not addressed Varied Waived/not asserted
Trademark and patent explicitly reserved No No No No Yes
Other license features
Representations and warranties from licensor included Yes No No No No
Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures No No No No Yes
Automatic reinstatement after termination if violations corrected No No No No Yes, if corrected within 30 days
Express reservation of right by collecting society to collect royalty Not addressed Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible Expressly waived where possible
Element-specific features
Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses same license only same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, or ports same license, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses same license, later versions, CC-designated compatible licenses (including designated ports)
Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses No No No No Yes
Adaptations of SA material usable under conditions of adapter's license Yes (because adapter's license had to be same license) No No No Yes
Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared No No No No Yes

Attribution-specific elements

License Suite Version 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.0
Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Medium and means, with exceptions Explicit
Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements All but license notices All but license notices All but license notices All but license and copyright notices All
Licensors may name other attribution parties Implied Implied Implied Explicit Explicit
Licensors may request removal of attribution Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Adaptations and collections only Always
Title of work required Yes Yes Yes Yes No
URI required No If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information If contains copyright notice or licensing information Yes
"No endorsement" clause included No No No Yes Yes
Modifications must be indicated No No No Yes, but only adaptations Yes

Detailed attribution comparison chart

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Author if supplied Author if supplied Author if supplied and attribution parties if designated in copyright notice, TOS, or other reasonable means Creator if supplied and attribution parties if designated in reasonable manner
Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notices if supplied Copyright notice if supplied
Title if supplied Title if supplied Title if supplied N/A
Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notices that refer to Public License and the disclaimer of warranties if supplied Notice that refers to Public License and notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties if supplied
N/A To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI licensor specifies to be associated with the work (but only if references copyright notice or licensing info) To the extent practicable, URI or link to the material if supplied
If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used If adaptation, credit indicating Work has been used and reasonable steps taken to identify that changes were made to the original Indicate if you modified the material; retain an indication of previous modifications
Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Text/URI for Public License Indicate the material is available under Public License and include text/URI/link
If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable If collection or adaptation, remove reference to author and licensor upon request to the extent practicable Remove attribution information upon request to the extent reasonably practicable
Copyright notice, author, title, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Copyright notice, author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation – all may be implemented in any reasonable manner, so long as at least as prominent as other authorship credit if an adaptation or collection Author, title, URI, credit noting use of original in adaptation -- all reasonable to medium and means All reasonable to medium, means, and context


Features remaining unchanged

License Features

Nomenclature (for international licenses)

The 4.0 licenses are referred to as "international."

Version 3.0 licenses were referred to as "unported" licenses until 2010, at which point they were re-branded as the "international" licenses. At that point, CC added a global flag to the licenses and deeds and changed the reference in the Chooser (among other things). In the 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 versions, the international licenses were called the “generic” licenses. The generic licenses were drafted to conform with U.S. copyright law.

Starting with version 3.0, Creative Commons drafted its core suite of licenses to conform to relevant international treaties and drafting conventions. In this sense, version 3.0 and the current 4.0 international license suites are jurisdiction-agnostic: these licenses do not mention and are not drafted against any particular jurisdiction's laws or statutes. They are intended to function without adjustment in all jurisdictions around the world.

License scope (beyond copyright)

Sui generis database rights

The 4.0 international suite licenses database rights along with copyright. Where the use of a database under a CC license implicates sui generis database rights, whether or not copyright is implicated, that use is subject to the terms and conditions of the license. If sui generis rights are not implicated—for example, if the use is in a jurisdiction where these rights do not exist, or if the database is not protected by the laws of a jurisdiction where such rights exist— such uses are not regulated by the license if copyright or neighboring rights do not apply. A few early (2.0, 2.5) European jurisdiction license ports also licensed database rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

In 3.0, the international (unported) license suite does not mention sui generis rights. However, ported 3.0 licenses for jurisdictions where those rights exist address them according to CC's 3.0 database rights policy. Under this policy, version 3.0 EU jurisdiction ports must license sui generis rights subject to the terms and conditions of the license just like copyright and neighboring rights, but also must waive license restrictions and conditions (attribution, ShareAlike, etc) for uses triggering database rights—so that if the use of a database published under a CC license implicated only database rights but not copyright, the CC license requirements and prohibitions would not apply to that use. The license conditions and restrictions, however, continue to apply to all uses triggering copyright. Other ports and the 3.0 international license are silent on sui generis database rights: databases and data are licensed (i.e., subject to restrictions detailed in the license) to the extent copyrightable, and if data in the database or the database itself are not copyrightable the license restrictions do not apply to those parts (though they still apply to the remainder). Thus, regardless of the CC 3.0 license at play (unported, an EU port, another port), uses that implicate only database rights will not trigger the license conditions, while uses that implicate copyright will.

Neither the international nor the ported licenses that address database rights export the sui generis rights to jurisdictions where such rights are not recognized (the ported licenses accomplish this as well through inclusion of a territoriality limitation). This avoids the imposition of restrictions based on sui generis rights via contract where those rights are not enforceable or recognized. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Treatment of moral rights

In version 4.0, moral rights are waived to the limited extent necessary to exercise the licensed rights.

While the existence and extent of moral rights differ by jurisdiction, the most consistently present rights are those of attribution and integrity (the right to prevent or halt the prejudicial use of one’s work by another). The 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 licenses were drafted to conform to U.S. law, and because U.S. law recognizes moral rights in only very limited circumstances, the generic versions of those licenses suites do not address moral rights of authors.

The international licenses began to address moral rights in version 3.0. In version 4.0, moral rights are waived or not asserted to the extent possible under local law, to the limited extent they would otherwise interfere with exercise of the licensed rights. This avoids establishing moral rights through the license where they would not otherwise exist, but recognizes that there are jurisdictions where this limited waiver is not possible. The attribution requirements in Section 3 of the 4.0 licenses may satisfy many jurisdictions' right of attribution; however, they are a requirement of the license regardless of whether moral rights apply to a use.

In the 3.0 license suite, CC addressed moral rights in the international (unported) licenses. CC did not include a waiver of those rights in the international licenses. Instead, the licenses specifically instruct users that they “must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation.” The only exception is where the right to make adaptations would be considered prejudicial to the author's honor and reputation, in which case the licensor waives or agrees not to assert their moral right in order to allow adaptations to be made. The attribution requirement is designed in part to satisfy the right of attribution. In the porting process, some jurisdictions slightly adjusted this provision, with CC’s permission, to specify that moral rights are waived to the extent necessary to effect the license to the degree a waiver is possible under applicable law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Trademark and patent explicitly not licensed

In the 4.0 licenses, trademark and patent rights are expressly mentioned as not among the rights licensed.

No CC license version licenses patent and trademark rights along with copyright. These rights are treated separately and are not covered by the license. In 4.0, this was made explicit to avoid confusion. However, in all license versions, implied licenses may come into play where these rights would interfere with exercise of the rights granted by the CC license.

Attribution and marking

Attribution reasonable to means, medium, and context

In 4.0, the manner of attribution is explicitly allowed to be reasonable to the means, medium, and context of how one shares a work.

In the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 licenses, attribution may be reasonable to the medium or means, and applied to all elements other than certain notices where the requirement is firm. In 4.0, this explicit permission applies to the medium, means, and context of use. We believe this to be a clarification rather than a change: attribution reasonable to the means, medium, and context of use should be permissible for works under any CC license. Additionally, the pre-4.0 licenses specified that credit in adaptations and collections should be at least as prominent as credits for other authors; 4.0 is not specific in this regard.

Reasonableness applies to all attribution requirements

In 4.0, all attribution requirements may be fulfilled reasonable to the means, medium, and context of the use.

In earlier license versions, compliance reasonable to means and medium of use was not expressly permitted for all elements, as certain notices were excluded; however, in 4.0 these are included in the elements that may be fulfilled in a reasonable manner.

Credit to others explicit

In 4.0, proper attribution requires credit to designated others where supplied by the licensor.

In the 1.0 and 2.0 licenses, CC licenses contemplated crediting the author only. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 allow licensors to identify another party or organization for attribution (called an “Attribution Party” in these licenses). This feature was introduced in part to alleviate burdensome or difficult attribution situations, such as when many people contribute to a collaborative effort and agree to be credited as a collective body. In licenses with this feature, licensors may designate another party for attribution purposes—such as a sponsor institute, publishing entity or journal—in addition to or instead of the author. You may review some of the concerns raised when CC proposed this change.

Licensors may request removal of attribution

In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified.

All license versions after version 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.

Title required

The title is not required for proper attribution in the 4.0 licenses. It is required in all earlier versions.

Beginning in version 1.0, one of the requirements for proper attribution was to include the title of the licensed work; this requirement was kept in versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. In Version 4.0, this requirement was eliminated to increase flexibility and ease of compliance, particularly as many works do not have titles. Users are still encouraged to include titles where supplied.

URI required

For 4.0 licensed materials, a URI is required for proper attribution, if it is reasonably practicable to include.

The version 1.0 licenses contained no URI requirement. In version 2.0, CC introduced the requirement to retain a URI associated with a licensed work for proper attribution if it contains copyright notices or licensing information; this was kept through 2.5 and 3.0. In version 4.0, CC reconsidered this requirement. However, it was retained based on feedback from current and potential adopters that it is important for provenance, branding, and other reasons; a URI associated with the work is required as part of attribution if reasonably practicable to retain, regardless of whether it contains copyright notices or licensing information.

"No endorsement" clause included

In version 4.0, the license is clear that it should not be construed as giving permission to suggest the licensor endorses their use and similar.

In some jurisdictions, wrongfully implying that an author, publisher, or anyone else endorses a particular use of a work may be unlawful. Though not explicitly mentioned in the 1.0, 2.0, or 2.5 licenses, this has always been the case. The version 3.0 licenses contain an express no endorsement clause. In version 4.0, this clause is expressed as a limitation on the rights granted by the licensor.

Modifications and adaptations must be indicated

In the 4.0 license suite, licensees are required to indicate if they made modifications to the licensed material. This obligation applies whether or not the modifications produced adapted material. As with all other attribution and marking requirements, this may be done in a manner reasonable to the means, medium, and context. For example, "This section is an excerpt of the original." For trivial modifications, such as correcting spelling errors, it may be reasonable to omit the notice.

In the 3.0 suite, the obligation to indicate if modifications have been made applies if they result in the creation of an adaptation (when allowed by the license). Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 2.5 do not contain this requirement directly; however, the requirement in those licenses that the original work be credited if used in an adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author") is some indication that the work has been modified. Even when not required, licensees are encouraged to indicate the material has been modified, and ideally (when reasonable) to describe or specify the changes made.

Other license features

Representations and warranties from licensor included

In version 4.0, the licensor does not provide representations and warranties regarding the licensed content.

In the 1.0 license suite, the licensor extends warranties—for instance, that the work does not infringe the work of another. These warranties were eliminated in all subsequent license versions. Versions 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 explicitly offer the work “AS IS” and disclaim all liabilities to the extent allowable by law. In 4.0, an interpretation clause was added to help ensure that the disclaimer would be interpreted as intended given variations in local law. Of course, licensors may continue to offer warranties and specialized disclaimers separately from the license.

Some ports of 3.0 include warranties where they may not be disclaimed under local law. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

Licensor expressly waives rights to enforce, and grants permission to circumvent, technological protection measures

Version 4.0 includes an explicit waiver of, or agreement not to assert, any right licensor may otherwise have to enforce anti-circumvention of any effective technological measures applied to licensed material. CC licensors may apply such measures to their own licensed material, but the 4.0 licenses ensure that, to the extent possible, users are able to exercise the licensed rights when applied by or with the permission of the licensor. To reinforce this, the version 4.0 licenses also expressly grant permission to circumvent those measures.

It is always possible for a licensor to upload his or her own work to a platform that applies technological protection measures, even though the licensor chooses to use a CC license. The permission for a third-party platform to apply ETMs is separate from the CC license, and the CC license cannot restrict that additional permission because CC licenses are nonexclusive. In many jurisdictions, that third party may be able to enforce ETMs through civil or criminal anti-circumvention laws even though the licensor has waived or agreed not to assert any such right under the CC license. Licensees should make themselves aware of any legal limits on their ability to circumvent ETMs in advance of doing so.

In versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, the waiver of any right to enforce and the permission to circumvent are not express; however, this does not preclude any implied right to do so that may exist.

Automatic restoration of rights after termination if license violations corrected

In version 4.0, licensees may regain their rights to use licensed material after the license terminates by correcting a license violation within 30 days of discovering it.

In all license versions, a breach of the license terms results in automatic termination. Under versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, express permission from the licensor is required for licensees to regain their rights to use the work. In version 4.0, a new provision allows the rights to be automatically reinstated without express permission from the licensor, provided that the violation is corrected within 30 days of its discovery. This is similar to provisions in a handful of other public licenses.

In all versions, a licensor may of course reinstate permissions at any time.

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Under 4.0, licensors waive any right to collect royalties under collecting society schemes if they have chosen licenses permitting commercial uses. A licensor may collect royalties for commercial uses for works under the NonCommercial licenses.

Many users of Creative Commons licenses are members of collective rights societies like ASCAP, BMI, BUMA/STEMRA, and others that manage copyright on behalf of owners. Every license version from the 2.0 suite onward contains clauses that account for the existence of those arrangements. They provide, for instance, that for works offered under a NonCommercial license, the licensor retains the right to collect royalties for commercial uses of the work. The structure of the provisions in the 2.0 and 2.5 licenses differs from that in the version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses. The 2.x licenses specifically regulate music, sound recordings, and webcasting. As those licenses were ported to different jurisdictions, those provisions were adjusted to conform to the local collecting society situation.

The version 3.0 licenses and later employ a broad, harmonized strategy to collective rights societies. This strategy still allows jurisdictions to adopt an approach that best aligns with local law and society structure in the 3.0 licenses, but also ensures that the approach is implemented consistently across jurisdictions. In the international license, as regards compulsory royalty collection, the licensor reserves any right they have to collect those royalties in jurisdictions in which collection cannot be waived. In those jurisdictions in which compulsory royalty collection can be waived, the right to collect royalties is waived completely for those licenses that permit commercial use, and is reserved for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only. For voluntary royalty schema, the licensor reserves the right to collect royalties for commercial uses in those licenses that permit NonCommercial use only, and waives the right to collect such royalties for licenses permitting commercial use. This clause covers both individual royalty collection and, in the event that the licensor is a member of a collecting society that collects such royalties, collection via such societies to the extent permitted by law. Some ports of the version 3.0 licenses include only those clauses that address the particular situation in the jurisdiction. Others have adopted all the language from the international license in hopes of international harmonization, or out of concern that their jurisdiction’s regime may change. You may compare how different jurisdictions implemented this section of the license.

License-specific features

Compatibility mechanism in BY-SA licenses

Under the 4.0 licenses, licensees may use licenses designated by CC as compatible for their contributions to adapted material.

The ShareAlike licenses require that licensees make their contributions to adapted material available under the same terms and conditions, or, where the license allows, under a license designated by CC as compatible. The version 1.0 ShareAlike licenses require that adaptations be made under exactly the same license as applied to the original work. Starting with the release of the 2.x license suites, CC expanded compatibility by allowing contributions to adapted material to be created under the same or later version of the original license, including other ported versions of the same or later version of the license. The 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike goes one step further, by allowing those contributions to be licensed under under a “Creative Commons Compatible License,” defined to mean licenses approved by CC as essentially equivalent to the 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license.

To date, CC has not approved any other licenses as compatible. However, CC will develop a compatibility process shortly following launch of the 4.0 licenses, and begin evaluating other licenses. You can view the list of compatible licenses, and a post about the upcoming compatibility process. You may also want to review CC’s statement of intent for the Attribution-ShareAlike licenses, and a draft statement that sets out further principles for the ShareAlike licenses.

Compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA licenses

In the 4.0 licenses, the same compatibility mechanism is present in the BY-NC-SA license as in BY-SA. Adapted material may be licensed under BY-NC-SA, version 4.0 or later, or any license CC has designated as compatible. To date, CC has not identified any other licenses as compatible; the process and criteria will be maintained on the compatibility page. There is no compatibility mechanism in the 1.0, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 versions of BY-NC-SA.

Adapted material usable under conditions of adapter's license

In version 4.0, CC added a provision in the ShareAlike licenses that enables downstream licensees to refer only to the adapter’s license when using adapted material that contains the copyrightable contributions of multiple authors. This feature is designed to minimize complexity for reusers where they are using a later version of the ShareAlike license or a compatible license as their adapter's license. In 4.0, users need only refer to a single set of conditions contained in the last license applied to reuse adapted material, rather than parsing the conditions of the original and other adapter's licenses (to the extent the licenses differ).

In all cases, the licenses stack (the later license does not supplant all previously-applied licenses) when adapted material is created. In particular, the license originally applied to the material being remixed continues to apply once remixed, however permission is given in 4.0 for licensees to meet the conditions of the 4.0 license with reference to those in the adapter's license.

Prior to the 4.0 versioning process, CC had not always been clear that the ShareAlike licenses stacked just as they stack for the BY and BY-NC licenses, and reasonable minds do differ on this point. CC believes, however, that this is the best reading of its all of its licenses that permit adaptations prior to 4.0 and, now, has made that explicit in version 4.0.

Adaptations of NoDerivatives material permitted when not shared

In Version 4.0, licensees are granted permission to create adaptations of material licensed under one of the NoDerivatives licenses, but not permission to share the adaptations publicly.

In general, private personal use does not require the permission of the licensor and, therefore, does not require that the conditions of the CC license be followed. In 4.0, NoDerivatives is a partial rather than an absolute limitation on the rights granted. It does not restrict the production of adaptations (an exclusive right of creators under copyright), but it does prohibit the public sharing of those adaptations (also an exclusive right of creators under copyright). This change enables private activities that may result in the creation of adaptations whether intentionally or unintentionally, such as adaptations made in the course or as a result of text and data mining.

The creation of adaptations in connection with those and other activities are not permitted under the 3.0 and earlier versions absent an applicable exception or limitation.

Features remaining unchanged across license versions

Attribution required

All of the CC licenses require attribution where "BY" is a license element, which is all but five of the eleven version 1.0 licenses.The required mode of attribution differs slightly among the versions, and is progressively more flexible with each version. The version 1.0 suite is unique because it contains five CC licenses that do not require attribution. All subsequent license suites make attribution a standard requirement, though the licensor may request removal in certain circumstances. It is also possible under all license versions for a licensor to release works anonymously, and to waive the requirement by not providing authorship information. Where an element of attribution information is not provided by the licensor, the licensee is not required to provide it.

Definition of "NonCommercial"

While the Creative Commons licenses have evolved over time, the scope of permitted uses under the NonCommercial licenses has remained unchanged across all license suites. (In 4.0, there was a small adjustment to the wording of the definition which was not intended to change its scope.) The NonCommercial clause prohibits the exercise of rights granted under the NonCommercial licenses “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” In 2008, Creative Commons conducted a study on the meaning of NonCommercial in the online environment.

During the 4.0 process, CC took another look at the role of these licenses in general as well as the NonCommercial definition, and considered a name change to "Commercial Rights Reserved". The ultimate decision was to leave unchanged the license name and definition.

Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited

All CC license versions prohibit licensees (as opposed to licensors) from using effective technological measures such as “digital rights management” software to restrict the ability of those who receive a CC-licensed work to exercise rights granted under the license. To be clear, encryption or an access limitation is not necessarily a technical protection measure prohibited by the licenses. For example, content sent via email and encrypted with the recipient's public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a set of users (e.g., with a username and password) does not restrict use of the work by the recipients. In the cases above, encryption or an access limitation does not violate the prohibition on technological measures because the recipient is not prevented from exercising all rights granted by the license (including rights of further redistribution).

This treatment was re-evaluated during the public process leading to release of the version 3.0 license suite. CC considered arguments in favor of such measures, coupled with an obligation of parallel distribution; these arguments were also reconsidered during the 4.0 process. However, in both versioning processes, those arguments were ultimately rejected.

Note that in 4.0, CC introduced a definition of Effective Technological Measures. This definition is not intended to change the scope of what is and is not allowed, but instead provide long-needed clarification over the scope of the prohibition.

Exceptions and limitations unaffected

All CC licenses only govern uses that would otherwise be restricted by copyright and other closely related rights as provided in the licenses. If a use is not regulated by virtue of an applicable exception or limitation, the license does not apply and there is no need to follow the license conditions. The licenses do not create obligations where they would not otherwise exist.

Effective for all copyrightable material

All Creative Commons license versions may be used with all copyrightable works (though CC recommends against using its licenses for computer software). Such works include compilations of data that exhibit the requisite level of creativity for copyright protection under applicable law. Thus, to the extent compilations of data are protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are suitable licenses for granting permission to exercise that right. For the avoidance of doubt, version 3.0 and 4.0 licenses explicitly identify compilations as material that may be licensed.

Note that sui generis database rights (existing separately from any copyright) are not explicitly licensed in the international suite until version 4.0.

Notices must be retained

The CC licenses all require users to retain a copyright notice, a notice of the disclaimers of warranties, and a license notice if supplied with the licensed material.

Synching creates adaptations

In all license versions, synching CC-licensed audio in timed relation with a video to create an audiovisual work creates an adaptation of that audio work for purposes of the license, regardless of whether the new work would be considered an adaptation under the relevant copyright law. This means, for example, that the requirements of ShareAlike are triggered if the audio work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, and that such works may be made but not shared if licensed under a NoDerivatives license as of version 4.0.

No sublicensing

None of the Creative Commons licenses grant permission to sublicense the licensed material. All of the licenses are direct licenses from the original licensor to all recipients. All permissions granted come directly from the original licensor, creating a direct relationship for enforcement and other purposes between the original licensor and all recipients.

Licensing of collections

Including a CC-licensed work in a collection (a work comprised of separate and independent works) is permitted by all CC licenses. However the collective work as a whole is licensed, the license on the collection does not affect the CC license applied to the work.

In 4.0, reference to distribution in a collection was removed from the license as unnecessary. There is no change from previous versions, however.

Licensing of contributions to BY and BY-NC adaptations

The 4.0 licenses make clear for the first time how contributions to adaptations of BY and BY-NC works may be licensed. Specifically, an adapting licensee may apply any license to her contributions provided that license does not prevent users of the adaption from complying with the original license. While new in 4.0, the introduction of this provision is intended as a clarifier only and is not a change from how earlier versions operate.

Licenses

Links to the International (unported) legal code for the six licenses making up the current suite, for each version:

4.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.0

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#####EOF##### Open Data - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Program areas > Open Data

Open Data

open data
Open data by Descrier, CC BY 2.0.

Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike. –Open Data Handbook

The sharing of open data can be incredibly beneficial to society: facilitating enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, increasing government and corporate transparency, and speeding the discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data is realized by use across organizational and geographical boundaries. How does this occur legally? Increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated through the use of standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using Creative Commons licenses to share data (see our FAQ). The CC0 Public Domain Dedication can be particularly important to maximize the re-use of data and databases, since it otherwise may be unclear whether highly factual data and databases are restricted by copyright or other rights. CC0 is intended to cover all copyright and database rights, so that however data and databases are restricted (under copyright or otherwise), those rights are all surrendered.

Open data policies are being adopted to ensure access to data—either as a raw material, or alongside other types of scholarly outputs. And data-specific repositories allow users to upload and share under CC licenses.

 

#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 2.0 Generic — CC BY-SA 2.0
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Dies ist eine allgemeinverständliche Zusammenfassung der Lizenz (die diese nicht ersetzt). Haftungsbeschränkung.

Sie dürfen:

  • Bearbeiten — das Material remixen, verändern und darauf aufbauen
  • und zwar für beliebige Zwecke, sogar kommerziell.
  • Der Lizenzgeber kann diese Freiheiten nicht widerrufen solange Sie sich an die Lizenzbedingungen halten.

Unter folgenden Bedingungen:

  • Namensnennung — Sie müssen angemessene Urheber- und Rechteangaben machen, einen Link zur Lizenz beifügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden. Diese Angaben dürfen in jeder angemessenen Art und Weise gemacht werden, allerdings nicht so, dass der Eindruck entsteht, der Lizenzgeber unterstütze gerade Sie oder Ihre Nutzung besonders.

  • Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen — Wenn Sie das Material remixen, verändern oder anderweitig direkt darauf aufbauen, dürfen Sie Ihre Beiträge nur unter derselben Lizenz wie das Original verbreiten.

  • Keine weiteren Einschränkungen — Sie dürfen keine zusätzlichen Klauseln oder technische Verfahren einsetzen, die anderen rechtlich irgendetwas untersagen, was die Lizenz erlaubt.

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  • Sie müssen sich nicht an diese Lizenz halten hinsichtlich solcher Teile des Materials, die gemeinfrei sind, oder soweit Ihre Nutzungshandlungen durch Ausnahmen und Schranken des Urheberrechts gedeckt sind.
  • Es werden keine Garantien gegeben und auch keine Gewähr geleistet. Die Lizenz verschafft Ihnen möglicherweise nicht alle Erlaubnisse, die Sie für die jeweilige Nutzung brauchen. Es können beispielsweise andere Rechte wie Persönlichkeits- und Datenschutzrechte zu beachten sein, die Ihre Nutzung des Materials entsprechend beschränken.

Eine neuere Version dieses Lizenzvertrages ist verfügbar. Für neue Werke sollte diese aktuelle Version benutzt werden. Zu erwägen wäre auch, alte Werke unter der aktuellen Version neu zu lizenzieren. Eine automatische Neulizenzierung findet jedoch nicht statt.

#####EOF##### Considerations for licensors and licensees - Creative Commons

Considerations for licensors and licensees

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The following list sets out some basic things that you should think about before you apply a Creative Commons license to your material, or use Creative Commons-licensed material. It is not an exhaustive list. If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to post to one of our email discussion lists, send us an email at info@creativecommons.org, send an email to one of our country project leads or obtain your own legal advice.

Considerations for Licensors - if you are licensing your own work
Considerations for Licensees - if you are using someone else's work

Contents

Considerations for licensors

Irrevocability

Remember the license may not be revoked.

Once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright and similar rights, even if you later stop distributing it.

Type of material

Make sure the material is appropriate for CC licensing.

CC licenses are appropriate for all types of content you want to share publicly, except software and hardware.

Specify precisely what it is you are licensing.

Any given work has multiple elements; e.g., text, images, music. Make sure to clearly mark or indicate in a notice which of those are covered by the license.

Nature and adequacy of rights

Make sure the material is subject to copyright or similar rights.

CC licenses are operative only where copyright, sui generis database rights, or other rights closely related to copyright come into play. They should not be applied to material in the public domain.

Clear rights needed to use the material.

If the material includes rights held by others, make sure to get permission to sublicense those rights under the CC license. If you created the material in the scope of your employment or as a work-for-hire, you may not be the holder of the rights and may need to get permission before applying a CC license.

Indicate rights not covered by the license.

Prominently mark or indicate in a notice any rights held by third parties, such as publicity or trademark rights. This includes any content you used under exceptions or limitations to copyright, and any third party content used under another license (even if it is the same CC license as you applied).

Type of license

Think about how you want the material to be used.

Consider what you hope to achieve by sharing your work when determining which of the six CC licenses to apply. For example, if you want it to appear in a Wikipedia article, it must be licensed using BY-SA or a compatible license.

Consider any obligations that may affect what type of license you apply.

Think about any obligations you have, such as licensing requirements from a funding source, employment agreement, or limitations on your ability to use a CC license imposed by a collecting society, that dictate which (if any) of the six CC licenses you can apply.

Additional provisions

Consider offering a warranty.

If you are confident you have cleared all rights in the material, you may choose to warrant that the work does not violate the rights of any third parties.

Specify additional permissions, if desired.

You have the option of granting permissions above and beyond what the license allows; for example, allowing licensees to translate ND-licensed material. If so, consider using CC+ to indicate the additional permissions offered.

Special preferences

Specify attribution information if desired.

You may indicate particular attribution parties, a URI for the material, and other attribution information for licensees to retain.

Indicate any non binding requests.

You may ask licensees to adhere to your special requests, such as marking or describing changes they make to your material.

Considerations for licensees

Understand the license.

Read the legal code, not just the deed.

The human-readable deed is a summary of, but not a replacement for, the legal code. It does not explain everything you need to know before using licensed material.

Make sure the license grants permission for what you want to do.

There are six different CC licenses. Two of the licenses prohibit the sharing of adaptations (BY-ND, BY-NC-ND); three prohibit commercial uses (BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA), and two require adaptations be licensed under the same license (BY-SA, BY-NC-SA).

Take note of the particular version of the license.

The current version (4.0) differs from prior versions in important respects. Similarly, the jurisdiction ports may differ in certain terms, such as dispute resolution and choice of law.

Scope of the license.

Pay attention to what exactly is being licensed.

The licensor should have marked which elements of the work are subject to the license and which are not. For those elements that are not subject to the license, you may need separate permission.

Consider clearing rights if you are concerned.

The license does not contain a warranty, so if you think there may be third party rights in the material, you may want to clear those rights in advance.

Some uses of licensed material do not require permission under the license.

If the use you want to make of a work falls within an exception or limitation to copyright or similar rights, you may do so. Those uses are unregulated by the license.

Know your obligations.

Provide attribution.

All CC licenses require you provide attribution and mark the material when you share it publicly. The specific requirements vary slightly across versions.

Do not restrict others from exercising rights under the license.

All CC licenses prohibit you from applying effective technological measures or imposing legal terms that would prevent others from doing what the license permits.

Determine what, if anything, you can do with adaptations you make.

Depending on what type of license is applied, you are limited in whether you can share your adaptation and if so, what license you can apply to your contributions.

Termination is automatic.

All CC licenses terminate automatically when you fail to comply with its terms. If the material is under a 4.0 license, you must fix the problem within 30 days of discovery if you want your rights automatically reinstated.

Consider licensor preferences.

Consider complying with non-binding requests by the licensor.

The licensor may make special requests when you use the material. We recommend you do so when reasonable, but that is your option and not your obligation.

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#####EOF##### Data - Creative Commons

Data

From Creative Commons
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This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases
Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker's investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

How do I apply a CC legal tool to a database?

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our marking page for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights--but not copyright--are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

Which components of databases are protected by copyright?

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.[1] These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by copyright?

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

If my use of a database is restricted by copyright, how do I comply with the license?

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker's substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Notes

  1. ↑ Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).
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#####EOF##### CC Friendly Lawyers - Creative Commons

CC Friendly Lawyers

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Please note that CC does not provide referral services, and that we do not necessarily endorse or recommend anyone on this list for any particular client or circumstance.

Canada

Ecuador

Germany

Italy

  • Array, including Carlo Piana

South Africa

Sweden

United States

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Namensnennung - Nicht-kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitung 2.0 Generic — CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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Namensnennung - Nicht-kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitung 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Dies ist eine allgemeinverständliche Zusammenfassung der Lizenz (die diese nicht ersetzt). Haftungsbeschränkung.

Sie dürfen:

  • Der Lizenzgeber kann diese Freiheiten nicht widerrufen solange Sie sich an die Lizenzbedingungen halten.

Unter folgenden Bedingungen:

  • Keine weiteren Einschränkungen — Sie dürfen keine zusätzlichen Klauseln oder technische Verfahren einsetzen, die anderen rechtlich irgendetwas untersagen, was die Lizenz erlaubt.

Hinweise:

  • Sie müssen sich nicht an diese Lizenz halten hinsichtlich solcher Teile des Materials, die gemeinfrei sind, oder soweit Ihre Nutzungshandlungen durch Ausnahmen und Schranken des Urheberrechts gedeckt sind.
  • Es werden keine Garantien gegeben und auch keine Gewähr geleistet. Die Lizenz verschafft Ihnen möglicherweise nicht alle Erlaubnisse, die Sie für die jeweilige Nutzung brauchen. Es können beispielsweise andere Rechte wie Persönlichkeits- und Datenschutzrechte zu beachten sein, die Ihre Nutzung des Materials entsprechend beschränken.

Eine neuere Version dieses Lizenzvertrages ist verfügbar. Für neue Werke sollte diese aktuelle Version benutzt werden. Zu erwägen wäre auch, alte Werke unter der aktuellen Version neu zu lizenzieren. Eine automatische Neulizenzierung findet jedoch nicht statt.

#####EOF##### Videos - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Videos

Videos

One of the best ways to learn about Creative Commons is to watch one of our videos.

What is Creative Commons?what-is-cc

From our friends at Wikimedia, a short video describing Creative Commons licenses.

CC:RewireScreen Shot 2016-08-29 at 2.11.07 PM

A video from our big CC:Rewire event in San Francisco in June, 2016


Made with CCmade-with-cc_2

Our newest video describes our work with open business models and Creative Commons for makers on the Web.

Creative Commons Kiwi

This short and fun animation video by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand explains the CC licenses.

A Shared Culture

A high-level overview of the goals of Creative Commons and how we are “saving the world from failed sharing.” Created by Jesse Dylan, director of the “Yes We Can” video.

Get Creative

This short film covers the basics of why we formed, what we do, and how we do it.

Wanna Work Together?

Wanna Work Together? explains in practical details how creators expose, share, and remix their works using our free public licenses.

Building on the Past

The winner of our Moving Images Contest, Justin Cone created a short, succinct “commercial” that demonstrates what Creative Commons is, and how it works, in a slick package.

CC Pukekopukeko

Imagine if every teacher in New Zealand – all fifty thousand of them – shared their resources openly. Everyone would have the best educational content for free, without needing to ask permission. No more building resources from scratch, or reinventing the wheel.

#####EOF##### Privacy Policy (pre 2017-11-07) - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Privacy Policy > Privacy Policy (pre 2017-11-07)

Privacy Policy (pre 2017-11-07)

Preamble

This Master Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains the collection, use, and disclosure of “personal information” by Creative Commons Corporation (“CC” or “Creative Commons”), a Massachusetts Corporation. Unless otherwise noted on a particular site or service, this Privacy Policy applies to your use of all websites that Creative Commons operates, including http://creativecommons.org, http://wiki.creativecommons.org, http://openpolicynetwork.org, http://open4us.org, https://rightsback.org/, https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/, http://teamopen.cc, http://donate.creativecommons.org, http://thepowerofopen.org, and http://creativecommons.net (the “ccNet Website”), (collectively, the “Websites”), as well as the products, information, and services provided through the Websites, including the license chooser, legal tools, the CCID account system, and the CC OpenID service (together with the Websites, the “Services”). Creative Commons does not operate the website at http://ccmixter.org. Furthermore, this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of the websites operated by affiliates of
Creative Commons.

In addition, supplemental Privacy Policy terms (“Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms”) may apply to a particular Service, such as the Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine (http://sciencecommons.org/resources/supplemental-privacy-policy/). All such Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms will be accessible for you to read either within, or through your use of, that particular Service.

This Privacy Policy also explains our commitment to you with respect to our use and disclosure of non personal browsing and site usage data that Creative Commons collects as the provider of the Services. That commitment is contained in a “Data Usage Policy,” below.

As used in this policy, “personal information” means information that would allow a party to identify you such as, for example, your name, address or location, telephone number, or email address.

By accessing or using any of the Services, you are accepting and agreeing to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Our Principles

Creative Commons is committed to handling responsibly the information and data we collect about you through our Services, whether personal information or non personal browsing and site usage data. We have designed our Privacy Policy and our Data Usage Policy consistent with the following principles (the “Principles”):

  1. Privacy policies and data collection and use policies should be human readable, comprehensive, and easy to locate;
  2. Only the minimum amount of information reasonably necessary to provide you with services should be collected and maintained, and only for so long as reasonably needed or required;
  3. Information you provide through our Services, or that we gather as a result of your use of our Services, should not be used for marketing or advertising purposes, nor should it be provided voluntarily (without your permission) to anyone else unless required; and
  4. If Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your personal information (whether by subpoena or otherwise), then provided we have collected and retained an email address for you, Creative Commons will use reasonable means to notify you promptly of that event, unless prohibited by law or CC is otherwise advised not to notify you on the advice of legal counsel.

Personal Information CC Collects

We may collect personal information through our Services, including without limitation:

  • in connection with your selection of one of our licenses or legal tools including CC0 or the Public Domain Mark;
  • when you provide us with your personal information such as by sending an email to us or signing up to receive updates from Creative Commons;
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  • when you donate money to us or purchase merchandise;
  • when you create a CCID account (a universal log-in for all Services);
  • when you join and use the Creative Commons network through our ccNet Website, and/or establish a Creative Commons OpenID; and
  • when you provide personal information in connection with your participation in any of the forums we make available through our Services.

What CC Does with Personal Information

License/Tool Selection. We use the personal information you provide to us as part of your selection of one of our licenses/tools to provide you the RDF, html, and the uniform resource locator that correspond to the license/tool you selected. Some older versions of the license chooser enable Creative Commons to send you this information via email. In those cases, your email address is expunged after this email has been successfully sent. We may use all of this information to maintain license usage data.

Emails and Newsletters. We use the personal information you provide to us when you send us emails or sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons in order to respond to your request – for example, to reply to your email or to send you communications about Creative Commons news and campaigns.

When you subscribe to updates from us, your email address is sent to and stored in a CiviCRM database hosted on Creative Commons’ servers that can only be accessed by Creative Commons staff and contractors. When you subscribe to one of our email discussion lists, your name and email address is sent to and stored by (1) ibiblio.org (http://www.ibiblio.org/), a collaboration between the Center for the Public Domain (http://www.centerforthepublicdomain.org/) and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill  (http://www.unc.edu/), (2) Creative Commons, or (3) another service with which Creative Commons has engaged to provide email support. Personal information submitted as part of our email discussion lists is used for the purpose of managing the discussion lists. Your name and email address will typically be visible to other list participants when you correspond on the list and to the general public in the discussion archives. All emails sent to the discussions lists are publicly archived.

Events: If you sign up for an event hosted or run by Creative Commons, we may share your personal information with vendors and third party contractors solely for the purpose of organizing and running the event.

Donations. When you donate money to us or purchase merchandise via our support page, your personal information will be handled depending on which option you choose.

  1. If you purchase merchandise from the Creative Commons store (http://store.creativecommons.org/), your personal information will be used for the purpose of sending you the items you purchased. If you sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons when you check out from the store, we will use your personal information to send you communications about Creative Commons news and campaigns.
  2. You may donate money to Creative Commons directly or through a variety of on-line payment sites, including PayPal, JustGive.org, Good Search, Network for Good, and Mission Fish, among others. When you use any of those websites and services to donate to CC, your personal information is sent to, handled by and stored by those websites in accordance with their respective privacy policies and terms of use. You should read and understand the privacy policy and terms of use of any website you use to donate to Creative Commons. When you donate money to Creative Commons directly, we use your personal information to process your donation. When you donate money as part of one of CC’s fundraising campaigns, your name will be published on our “supporters page” unless you request otherwise. If you sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons when you provide your donation, we will use your personal information to send you communications about Creative Commons news and campaigns.

ccNet Website

This service is no longer accepting new accounts, but if you previously created a ccNet account, you may still access and use it. When you joined ccNet, you provided personal information to create your account and establish a password and profile, and to create an OpenID. We use that personal information to establish and maintain your accounts, provide you with the features we provide for account holders, to act as your OpenID service provider, and for the purpose of contacting you about upcoming news and events relevant to Creative Commons.

By joining ccNet, you were also given a public profile page where you can voluntarily post personal information for public viewing. The information that you submit on your public profile page, including but not limited to information you provide in the field “Your CC Story” and any photograph or image of yourself you upload, is posted by you at your discretion (although subject to ccNet’s Master Terms of Use). The information you publish on your public profile page, including your personal information, may be used by anyone who views that information for any lawful purpose, with the exception of the text you insert in the “Your CC Story” field and any photograph or image of yourself that you upload, which if you choose to provide in either case must be licensed under and becomes subject to the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, as stated on the Edit Profile page. CC may use the personal and non personal browsing information you provide in your public profile, including the text in the “Your CC Story” field (subject to the terms of that license), to promote the mission of Creative  Commons and the ccNet Website.

Participating in Our Community

Registered Users. When you register to obtain a user account on any of the Services (any such person, a “Registered User”), including but not limited to CCID (a universal log-in for all Creative Commons services), you may be asked to provide personal information to create your account and establish a password and profile. We encourage you to
use an alias or nickname if you are not comfortable providing your legal name. The name or nickname you provide in connection with your account may be used to attribute you in connection with any content you submit to any Service. We also use that personal information to establish and maintain your account, to provide you with the features
we provide Registered Users, and to email you regarding changes to this policy or other applicable policies. If you sign up to receive updates from Creative Commons when you create your account, we will use your personal information to send you communications about Creative Commons news and campaigns.

Any other personal information that we may collect which is not described specifically in this Privacy Policy will only be collected and used in accordance with the Principles.

Disclosures of Personal Information

In general, it is not Creative Commons’ practice to disclose personal information to third parties. Other than providing you with attribution using your CCID nickname in connection with your CC-licensed works, we may share your personal information in two instances:

First, Creative Commons may share personal information with our contractors and service providers in order to maintain, enhance, or add to the functionality of the Services, or to organize and run an event you signed up to attend.

Second, we may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Master Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; (c) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order; or (d) protect our rights, reputation, and property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public.

If Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your personal information (whether by subpoena or otherwise), then provided we have collected and retained an email address for you, Creative Commons will use reasonable means to notify you promptly of that event, unless prohibited by law or CC is otherwise advised not to notify you on the advice of legal counsel.

Security of Personal Information Collected via the Services

Creative Commons has implemented reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to and unlawful interception or processing of personal information that Creative Commons stores and controls. However, no website can fully eliminate security risks. Third parties may circumvent our security measures to unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. We will post a reasonably prominent notice to the Websites if any such security breach occurs.

OpenID, including Creative Commons OpenID services, and the CCID account system have security risks in addition to those described above. Among other things, OpenID and CCID are vulnerable to DNS attacks, and using OpenID and CCID may increase the risk of phishing. See About OpenID for more information about the types and levels of risks associated with OpenID.

Data Usage Policy: Non Personal Browsing and Site Usage Information

Our Data Usage Policy covers how we maintain and use information about you that is collected by our Services, including when you log into a website using your Creative Commons OpenID or CCID.

Non Personal Browsing Information We Collect

When you use the Services, our servers (which may be hosted by a third party service provider) may collect information indirectly and automatically (through, for example, the use of your “IP address”) about your activities while visiting the Websites and information about the browser you are using, including for example, through use of Google Analytics. In addition, whenever you use your Creative Commons OpenID or CCID to log into a website, our servers (which, again, may be hosted by a third party service provider) keep a log of the websites you visit and when you visit them.

No Linking

We do not intentionally link browsing information or information from our OpenID or CCID server logs to the personal information you submit to us. We use this information for internal purposes only, such as to help understand how the Services are being used, to improve our Services, and for systems administration purposes. CC may use a third party analytics provider to help us collect and analyze non personal browsing information through operation of our Services for those same purposes.

In connection with CC Search, you may tag content, create lists of favorite content, and do other things to personalize your experience. This information will be retained by Creative Commons in connection with your CCID.

No Selling or Sharing

Except in the unique situations identified in this Privacy Policy, Creative Commons does not sell or otherwise voluntarily provide the non personal browsing information we collect about you or your website usage to third parties.

No Access

As an OpenID and CCID service provider, CC could technically access your web-based account tied to our OpenID or CCID service, and could log in on behalf of any of its OpenID or CCID users to any of the accounts they have accessed using their Creative Commons OpenID or CCID. Creative Commons will never use this technical login ability for any purpose unless otherwise required by law.

No Retention

CC discards non personal browsing information from our OpenID and CCID server logs once we have used the information for the limited purposes noted above, under “No Linking.”

Notice

If Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your non personal browsing information or to log in on behalf of an OpenID or CCID user (whether by subpoena or otherwise), then CC will use reasonable means to notify you promptly of that event, unless CC is prohibited by law from doing so or is otherwise advised not to notify you on the advice of legal counsel.

Any other non-personal information that we collect which is not described specifically in this Privacy Policy will only be collected and used in accordance with the Principles.

Reorganization or Spin-Offs

Creative Commons may transfer some or all of your personal and/or non personal browsing information to a third party as a result of a reorganization, spin-off, or similar transaction. Upon such transfer, the acquirer’s privacy policy will apply. In such event, Creative Commons will use reasonable efforts to notify you and to ensure that at the time of the transaction the acquirer’s privacy policy complies with the Principles.

Children

The Services are not directed at children under the age of 13. Consistent with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without requiring parental consent. Our Master Terms of Use specifically prohibit anyone using our Services from submitting any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age. Any person who provides their personal information to CC through the Services represents that they are 13 years of age or older.

Third-Party Sites

The Services may include links to other websites. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party sites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other websites.

Special Note to International Users

The Services are hosted in the United States and the United Kingdom. Please note that your personal data may be  located on servers in the United States and/or the United Kingdom. By providing your personal data you consent to the use of your personal data for the uses identified above in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will also revise the Effective Date below. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the Services constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any updates.

Using this Privacy Policy for Your Own Purposes

The Creative Commons Privacy Policy is dedicated to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication. You are free to use and adapt this Privacy Policy and any applicable Supplemental Privacy Policy Terms for your own purposes. However, please keep in mind that this Privacy Policy may not be completely
suitable for your situation. Creative Commons strongly encourages you to seek the advice of your own attorney before repurposing this Privacy Policy on your own site.

Questions?

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at legal@creativecommons.org.

Effective Date: 2017-2-7 (February 7th 2017). For an archive of previous CC privacy policies, see here.

#####EOF##### PDM FAQ - Creative Commons

PDM FAQ

From Creative Commons
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These Public Domain Mark FAQs contain information that you should familiarize yourself with before applying the Public Domain Mark (“PDM”) to a work, or before using a work that is marked with the PDM. The information provided below is not exhaustive – it may not cover important issues that could affect you.

Contents

These FAQs are intended to supplement, not replace, our existing FAQs and our CC0 FAQs. You are encouraged to review those FAQs before using the PDM or any of our other legal tools or licenses. You should also read the PDM deed carefully, as well as the information linked to from the deed. The deed and supplemental information contain important information about the work that has been marked, and should be fully understood before you apply it to a work or use a PDM-marked work.

Please note: Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. The information provided below is not a substitute for legal advice and is not complete. Please consult your own legal advisor if you have any questions or concerns about the information provided below, about the Public Domain Mark or about Creative Commons licenses and tools generally.

Questions about the Public Domain Mark generally

What is the Public Domain Mark?

The Public Domain Mark (“PDM”) is a tool that allows anyone to mark and tag a work that is free of known copyright restrictions worldwide, all in a way that clearly communicates that status to the public and allows it to be easily discoverable. The PDM is not a legal instrument like CC0 or our licenses; there is no accompanying legal code or agreement. It should only be used to label a work that is already free of known copyright restrictions around the world, typically very old works. It should not be used to attempt to change a work’s current status under copyright law, or affect any person’s rights in a work. Just like CC0 and our licenses, PDM has a metadata-supported deed and is machine readable, allowing works properly tagged to be readily discovered over the Internet.

How does it work?

Anyone can use the PDM to mark a work that is free of known copyright restrictions. Information about the work, its author(s), and the person marking the work is supplied through our PDM Chooser and embedded in the HTML generated for the work. When supplied, this information may help users of the work evaluate the copyright status of the work for themselves, and learn more about the work. Again, please keep in mind that the PDM does not affect the legal status of the work or the legal rights of the author, the person identifying it or others. The PDM serves a marking and labeling function only.

What is the difference between the PDM and CC0?

PDM and CC0 differ in important respects and have distinct purposes. CC0 is intended for use only by authors or holders of copyright and related or neighboring rights (including sui generis database rights), in connection with works that are still subject to those rights in one or more jurisdictions. PDM, on the other hand, can be used by anyone, and is intended for use with works that are already free of known copyright restrictions throughout the world.

The tools also differ in terms of their effect when applied to a work. CC0 is legally operative in the sense that when it is applied, it changes the copyright status of the work, effectively relinquishing all copyright and related or neighboring rights worldwide. PDM is not legally operative in any respect – it is intended to function as a label, marking a work that is already free of known copyright restrictions worldwide. Learn more about CC0.

Can I use the PDM with data, such as metadata? What about databases?

Yes, PDM can be applied to any work that is free of known copyright restrictions. This means, for example, that you can use PDM to mark metadata, which is data about data, if the metadata is not copyrightable or otherwise free of copyright. For example, whether or not a photograph is still protected by copyright, metadata that describes the photograph may be unprotected by copyright. In that instance, PDM could be applied to the metadata itself.

PDM can also be applied to databases that are not protected by copyright, including databases containing metadata. The treatment of databases under copyright law varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, however, sometimes dramatically. Additionally, databases are also granted sui generis protection in some jurisdictions, which may limit the ability to extract and/or reuse information from the database even if the information itself in the public domain. If you are uncertain whether a database is protected by copyright around the world, then you should not mark the database itself with the PDM, but could use PDM to mark unprotected content in the database.

If you are the creator or maker of a database and want to ensure that anyone can freely extract and reuse content (subject, of course, to other rights that may apply to the contents of the database such as a photograph still under copyright), then you may wish to consider using CC0 to waive all of your copyright and sui generis database rights in the database itself. In all cases, clearly marking and labeling the works to which PDM and CC0 apply is important.

What about CC’s Public Domain Dedication and Certification? Can that tool still be used?

With the launch of the PDM, Creative Commons is officially deprecating its Public Domain Dedication and Certification (“PDDC”). CC no longer recommends the PDDC for use in any situation. The PDDC had served the dual purposes of allowing a copyright holder to dedicate a work to the public domain, and to mark and certify a work as being in the public domain. We discovered that having a single tool performing both functions was confusing, among other things. In early 2008, we published CC0 to take on the dedication function the PDDC had been performing. We announced at that time that we would be working to improve the way people mark or “tag” a work with information relevant to a work’s public domain status. The PDM is that improved tool. The PDM now assumes the marking and tagging function previously served by PDDC, thereby replacing the PDDC as the recommended tool of choice for doing so.

For those who have used the PDDC to date, you can remain confident that CC will continue to support and serve the PDDC deed.

If you need to certify your public domain dedication, you may visit a service provider such as RegisteredCommons.

Questions for those thinking about applying the PDM to a work

Who can apply the Public Domain Mark to a work?

Anyone who believes a work is free of known copyright restrictions may use the PDM. Keep in mind, however, that the PDM is recommended only for works that are free of known copyright restrictions around the world. You should not apply the PDM to works that you know are only in the public domain in a limited number of jurisdictions. We anticipate that most of the time, the PDM in its current form will only be applied to very old works.

If I apply the PDM to a work, am I warranting or promising that the work is free of copyright around the world?

No, not unless the law otherwise provides or you want to provide a separate warranty to that effect. Like all CC legal tools, the PDM deed includes express disclaimers of warranties and liabilities, to the extent those are enforceable under applicable laws. Additionally, the PDM deed puts users on notice that the work may not be free of copyright restrictions in all jurisdictions. That notice is intended to caution would-be users of the work that it can be difficult to account for all laws and all possible underlying factual circumstances that impact the copyright status of a particular work in every jurisdiction.

Notwithstanding the disclaimers and notice, if you know that a work you would like to mark is still in copyright in one or more jurisdictions, please do not apply the PDM. We are working on other means for marking works that are in the public domain in some jurisdictions while still restricted by copyright in others, and hope to publish that soon.

How do I apply the PDM to a work?

Our PDM Chooser will lead you through process. When completed, you will be provided with HTML code that you can copy and paste into your website. Please be aware that it is up to you, the person identifying the work, to publish the work marked with the PDM to your website or elsewhere. Creative Commons does not publish any works and cannot accept responsibility for doing so.

What are the benefits of including the information requested by the PDM Chooser?

The information you provide when using the PDM Chooser will be included in the rendered PDM deed that is linked to the work, as well as included in the machine-readable code. Potential users of the work can then use that information to find out more about the work and its status. Although the information fields are optional, we encourage you to provide all of the information you can for the benefit of users.

Does the PDM require those using a work I have marked to give me credit? Or the author?

No, there is no credit or attribution requirement, either for the person marking the work or the original author of the work. However, this does not mean that you cannot ask others to give you credit for your effort digitizing and/or marking the work in accordance with community or professional norms and standards.

PDM makes it very easy for users to cite the work itself. If information about the author and work is supplied during the PDM Chooser stage, an HTML citation box will appear on the deed. Users of the work can easily copy the code contained in the box and paste it into the webpage where the work is being used, providing citation information. We encourage everyone identifying works using the PDM Chooser to supply that information; and whenever made available, we encourage users of PDM-marked works to use the ready-to-use citation information.

Questions for those thinking about using a PDM-marked work

Can anyone use a work that is marked using the PDM?

Yes, the PDM doesn’t restrict who may use a marked work. Generally, any work free of copyright restrictions can be used for any purpose, even commercial purposes, without asking anyone’s permission first. Note, however, that the PDM deed identifies some important caveats under Other Information that all would-be users of the work should understand. Among others, it’s possible that a work marked using PDM is not free of all copyright restrictions in all jurisdictions around the world, or that other laws outside of copyright restrict how the work may be used. Read more about these possibilities and others, below.

If you are in doubt about whether or how you can use a PDM-marked work, you should consult with your legal advisor.

Am I really free to use a work marked with the PDM anyway I want, anywhere in the world?

Like all works that are labeled “free of known copyright restrictions,” “in the public domain” or similar – including works published on the Flickr Commons, museum or library websites or elsewhere – the answer is simple: “It depends.” In this one respect, PDM is no different than any other public domain marking system. That said, one of the most important advantages PDM has over other systems is that the deed alerts would-be users of a work to some of the important, potential limitations on their ability to use the work.

These potential limitations and caveats are highlighted on the PDM deed under Other Information. Users are strongly encouraged to review and understand those in advance of using a PDM-marked work (or any other work characterized as part of the public domain, for that matter).

Why might a free of copyright restrictions in one jurisdiction not be free of copyright restrictions everywhere?

Copyright laws around the world vary; there is no harmonized or standardized copyright law that all jurisdictions follow for purposes of determining when a work is no longer restricted by copyright. Additionally, circumstances causing a work to become part of the public domain under the laws of one jurisdiction may not cause a similar result under others’ laws. Thus, the identical work may be restricted by copyright in some jurisdictions while free of copyright in others.

A work may have this limited or “hybrid” public domain status for a variety of reasons. Some jurisdictions have unusually long copyright terms, which may mean that a work free from copyright restrictions most everywhere else in the world may still be protected by the copyright laws of that particular country. Sometimes a work is no longer restricted by copyright in a jurisdiction because the author or owner failed to comply with formalities such as renewal of registration or publication with notice, where those formalities apply. It could also be the case that certain categories of works are not protected by copyright by operation of law in a particular jurisdiction, but may be afforded protection under the copyright laws of other jurisdictions. This is the case, for example, with U.S. government works.

CC does not recommend the current version of PDM for works with are in public domain in some jurisdictions but known to be restricted by copyright in others. Even when this recommendation is followed, however, you should be aware that the possibility still exists. We choose to alert would-be users to that possibility up front, however remote it may be.

What practices do those who apply PDM to works use to arrive at a determination that a work is free of known copyright?

That will depend. CC has not established standards, expectations or even suggested practices for those choosing to apply the mark. Nor are we qualified to do so. Every institution and individual applying the mark must exercise their own judgment for marking works they wish to indicate are free of known copyright. Our hope is that those practices will be published widely and made transparent so that would-be users of PDM-marked works are able to understand the review that was undertaken. We also encourage potential users of PDM-marked works to inquire about those practices with the identifying institution or individual if they want to know more.

Unless otherwise stated to the contrary, however, the person applying the PDM to a work is not guaranteeing anything about it, including what processes or diligence they engaged in before applying the PDM to a work. Creative Commons does not verify the copyright status of works to which the Public Domain Mark has been applied.

Are there other laws I should be aware of that might restrict my ability to use a PDM-marked work?

Probably. PDM is focused exclusively on copyright law and related and neighboring rights. It does not address the applicability (or inapplicability) of other laws, except to alert users that use of the work may be otherwise regulated or limited. For example, if the work contains an image or likeness of a person or their voice, privacy or publicity rights may be implicated in some jurisdictions. Similarly, personal data protections laws could come into play depending on the nature of the work, its contents and the particular jurisdiction.

The freedom that comes with using a work in the public domain doesn’t extend to uses that may violate other applicable laws. Just as with works licensed under a CC license, you should be cognizant of other laws that may apply to your particular uses of a work.

Am I required to attribute the author of the work, or the person who applied the PDM to the work?

No, there is no legal requirement that you credit the author of the original work or the person who identified the work, only a request that you do so voluntarily if requested and the means are provided for doing so.

For purposes of author/work citation, the PDM deed provides HTML code that can be copy and pasted into a webpage to easily cite the author and the work if the person who marked the worked provided that information. We encourage you to take advantage of this copy/paste citation feature whenever possible.

How can I be sure that I can use the work as I would like?

The Public Domain Mark contains a disclaimer of warranties just like our licenses and CC0, so there is no assurance whatsoever that the work is free of all copyright restrictions in every jurisdiction around the world just because the mark is applied. You should also be aware of restrictions or limitations beyond copyright that may apply, such privacy, publicity, personal data laws and the like.

If you are in doubt, then we strongly recommend you not use the work until you have taken all the steps and precautions you feel you need to before doing so, which may include contacting the person who applied the PDM to the work and consulting legal counsel.


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#####EOF##### Marking your work with a CC license - Creative Commons

Marking your work with a CC license

From Creative Commons
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You have chosen a CC license for your work. Now how do you go about letting the world know? Here are some examples of how to mark your work with the CC license. Note: If you want to know how to attribute other creators' CC licensed materials, go here.

How to use the CC License Chooser

You can easily add a CC license notice to your website by visiting the CC license chooser. At the chooser, simply answer a few questions, fill in the fields you need, and receive an already formatted HTML code.

CC license chooser v2.png

At this point, all you have to do is:

1. Copy and paste the HTML code into your webpage or website.

The specifics of inserting the code depend on how you edit your website. The block of code should be inserted into the page HTML - most desktop website tools like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or GoLive offer a "code view" that lets you see the code that makes up your page. Near the end of the page before you see </body></html>, paste the HTML code in directly.
If all of the resources you are publishing on a single website are licensed under the same CC license, it makes sense to paste the HTML code into your website’s template (e.g., in a footer or sidebar area). After saving the template, the chosen license information should appear everywhere on your site. Whether you add license information to a single page or an entire site, once live on the Internet, the license information will be displayed and the machines will be able to detect the license status automatically.

2. Edit the descriptive text to suit your needs.

For example, if you select CC BY in the chooser, the default text you receive in the second line of html code is:
This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.
The bolded text is descriptive, and you can edit it without affecting the code. For example, you might specify what 'work' you're talking about, or let users know that the entire site is available under the license unless noted otherwise. You could edit the bolded part as follows:
Except where otherwise noted, this website is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Example: Website

Cc.org cc by license.jpg

This is the CC license notice at the bottom of this website. The CC BY license notice shows up on every page of creativecommons.org. This is a good example because:

Author? - Since the license is for the CC website as a whole, which includes multiple authors, one attribution party is not specified. Instead, it is clarified in the Terms of Use (linked in the footer on the left) who owns what content.
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) and linked.
Machine-readability? - Yup. Copied and pasted code from the license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Also, we make it clear that we will let you know when material is governed by terms different from the CC BY license.

Example: Blog

Parker's blog

If you visit Parker's blog, you will see this notice. Parker filled out a few fields in the CC license chooser, which spit out an html code. He copied and pasted the html code into his website, editing the descriptive text to his needs. This is a really good example because:

Author? - Parker specified that he is the author of the work.
License? - Parker named and linked to the specific CC license (Creative Commons Attribution).
Machine-readability? - Yup. Copied and pasted code from the license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Yup. Parker indicated that the site was "parker higgins dot net."

Example: Offline document

For documents that are meant to be shared offline, use a title and/or copyright page to include the copyright notice and CC license information. You can obtain suggested text using the license chooser.

Help others attribute you.jpg

In the 'Help others attribute you!' box, select 'Offline' in the drop-down menu for 'License mark'. Instead of html, you will receive the following text which you can edit as needed: "This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/." You can also download the corresponding CC license icon at our downloads page.

Example

Col cc notice.jpg

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) added this CC license notice to their copyright page in the report entitled, Survey on Governments’ Open Educational Resources (OER) Policies. This is a good example because:

Author? - "by The Commonwealth of Learning"
License? - The notice clearly specifies the CC BY-SA license along with a link.
Machine-readability? - No, it's an offline document.
Other good stuff? - COL added a (c) copyright notice and a title for the work. COL also added a license icon to make it visually appealing and recognizable. (All CC license icons can be downloaded for free here.)

If you link to the document on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

If you want to get technical and attempt embedding metadata within documents, see the CC-OpenOfficeOrg Addin for OpenOffice or the Microsoft Office add-ins for Microsoft Office 2003/XP, Office 2007/2010/2013.

Example: Image

8256206923 c77e85319e n.jpg
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol can be reused under the CC BY license

This photo was taken during CC's 10th birthday party in San Francisco by CC staff member tvol. This is a good example because:

Author? - "tvol" and linked to his Flickr profile page
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) and linked.
Machine-readability? - No, but it could be if we copied and pasted code from the CC license chooser.
Other good stuff? - Title is noted and linked to Flickr page where original image resides.

It is also easy to publish your image on an image sharing platform that has built-in CC licensing, such as Flickr, 500px, or Wikimedia Commons.

Note: We don't recommend adding a watermark or visual marker directly on an image, as it can detract from the original and prevent the reuse you want to allow with the CC license. Instead, make sure that the license information is clearly visible underneath (or otherwise next to) the image.

Example: Presentation

CC presentation example.jpg

This slide appears at the end of Jane Park's presentation called "Using the CC BY license, Workshop for 2013 OPEN Kick-off" at Slideshare. This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly specifies that Creative Commons is the party that should be credited, along with a request to link to creativecommons.org.
License? - The specific CC license is noted (CC BY) with a link provided.
Machine-readability? - Yes, because it was uploaded to Slideshare, a slide-sharing platform that supports CC licensing.
Other good stuff? - Jane made use of one of the free CC_video_bumpers to iconically illustrate the CC BY license. She also makes it clear that she will let you know when material is governed by terms different from the CC BY license ('Except otherwise noted..' ).

If you link to or embed the presentation on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

Example: Video

By bw small.png

This is a CC video bumper, which you can add to your video if you have room for a 2-5 second copyright frame. Here are some pre-made CC_video_bumpers and some newly updated bumpers (as of Feb. 2019).

You can edit these bumpers or create your own still with more information. Just make sure that such a still contains all the information recommended below.

Once you've added a copyright notice within your video, we recommend uploading your video to one of these video-sharing platforms that have built-in CC licensing. These platforms take care of the machine-readability for you. You can also add author and license info to any "about" field at these sites. After you've uploaded the videos, you can share the video on your own website or blog using the platform's "embed" feature.

If you link to or embed the video on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below. For example, this blog post does a good job of displaying the CC license information about the video outside of its medium.

Video embed example.jpg

If you want to get technical, we have a document about marking materials so that they are machine-readable.

Example: Audio

CC podcast introduction by Cory Doctorow

This is a sample CC audio bumper which you can add at the beginning of an audio file to orally tell users of the CC license. Feel free to use intro bumpers developed by various Internet celebrities. You can also create your own, which can include more information as recommended below.

For audio, we recommend uploading your file to one of the music sharing platforms or communities that support CC licensing. These platforms take care of the machine-readability for you. You can also add author and license info to any "about" field at these sites.

If you link to the file on a web page, make sure that the license information is clearly displayed next to the file, with all the recommended information below.

If you want to get technical, Use your favorite audio player to add in the information. See Embedded_Metadata. You can also add ID3 tags to a common audio file type, such as the MP3, or browse other file types.

Example: Dataset

Rufous woodpecker metadata.jpg

This is a CC license notice for a snippet of metadata that is part of the India Biodiversity Portal dataset. All the info is displayed once you click on the "i" to "Show details." This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly noted in the Contributors field as "Chitra Ravi, Content Editor, India Biodiversity Portal"
License? - The specific CC license is displayed via CC BY license icon and linked to the deed.
Machine-readability? - No, but they're working on that.
Other good stuff? - References used to create the summary/brief noted. License and author info easily found by clicking on "i" for more details.
Rufous woodpecker image marking.jpg

This is the CC license notice for the image to the right of the dataset which in this case is governed by different terms. This is a good example because:

Author? - Clearly noted once you click on the "i" under Attributions - Flickr user "ric seet"
License? - CC BY-NC-ND, which is displayed in icon and icon is linked to the deed
Machine-readability? - No, but they're working on that.
Other good stuff? - Link included to original Flickr image and even date that image was accessed. License and author info easily found by clicking on "i" for more details.

Author, License, Machine-readability

A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym ALM, which stands for Author, License, Machine-readability.

Author - Who should the user attribute?

This means the person who owns the copyright to the material and is licensing it to the public, aka the 'licensor.' If you are the licensor, then name yourself! If you're only one of the licensors, then name the others, too. If you are licensing the material on behalf of another entity, such as an organization, then you would note that instead.

License - How can the material be used?

This one's easy--they can use it under the CC license! Make sure to name the specific CC license the material is under and link to it, eg. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License with a link to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses!
→ Also consider including the corresponding CC license icon, a visible indication of the license that is recognized as part of the CC brand around the world, eg. http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/80x15.png

Machine-readability - Can machines read it?

We live in the digital age, so this is very important. If you want search engines and software systems to be able to detect the CC license, then make sure to use our license chooser tool to get the machine-readable html code, which you can then easily paste into web pages. This code is simply a summary of the license in a format that machines can understand, hence the term "machine-readability". (Note: You can also upload your work to a content sharing platform that supports CC licensing and takes care of the machine-readability for you.)

Lastly, Is there anything else the user should know about the material?

Is your work a modification of another work? Does your work incorporate elements of several third party materials? Are you adding any warranties, or modifying the existing disclaimer in the CC license? Are you granting additional permissions beyond what the license allows? If your answer is yes to any of these, then you should note that along with the license information about your work. For example, if your work incorporates third party materials, you would note those materials and make sure to attribute each of them correctly. This is also your chance to grant additional permissions. For example, if you license something under CC BY but are okay with people not attributing you in certain cases--this is your chance to specify those cases. You can't change the terms of a CC license, but you can always grant additional permissions or warranties.

Content-sharing platforms

One way to increase visibility and access to your work is to share it with an existing community on a content-sharing platform. Many platforms support machine-automated CC licensing, making it easy for you to indicate the license along with other information, such as who to attribute. In addition, these platforms may offer the ability to filter or search content by CC license, which increases the chances that your work may be discovered. Search engines, such as Google or Yahoo!, also index CC-licensed works from these platforms.

Take a look at how to license your work on a few of these platforms, like Vimeo and Soundcloud, at Publish.

If your favorite platform does not enable CC licensing, the best thing to do is to add in the license information manually as you would on your own site. There is usually a description or other free form field where you can enter info about the work. You might also consider encouraging your platform or community to enable CC licensing. If the demand is great, they just might listen.

Adding a CC0 public domain notice to your work

If you have decided to dedicate your work to the public domain using CC0, you can use the CC0 waiver tool just like you use the CC license chooser. Simply fill in the fields at the form, go through the the necessary steps of reading and understanding what rights you are giving up with CC0, and receive the already formatted html code at the end, as show below.

Ml blog cc0.jpg File:Ml blog cc0 2.jpg

Then copy and paste the resulting html into your website as you normally would, following best practices outlined above for adding a CC license using the license chooser.

You can see how Mike did that here, and by visiting his blog: File:Ml blog cc0 3.jpg

You can also upload your work to a content-sharing platform that supports CC0.

If you want to mark specific media, see the different examples above. You would simply exchange the CC license text with the CC0 waiver text, shown in the example below.

Example: CC0

Casey image cc0.jpg

The text reads: "Copyright and related rights waived via CC0"

This blog post is a good example of marking an image with CC0 instead of a CC license because:

It tells you what the CC0 tool actually does and links to the CC0 deed so that users may understand further. It is also clear that CC0 is not a license, but a waiver.

Other issues

Adding a CC license to your derivative work

If the work you are licensing is a derivative of another work, then in addition to following best practices above, you need to let your potential users know a few things:

  • That your work is a derivative of another work
  • Attribution for the original work (see Best practices for attribution)
  • If there are any other rights (eg. third party content used under fair use or other exceptions) that they should be aware of

Remember that if your work is an adaptation of a work licensed under either CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA, then your derivative work must be made available under the same license as per the ShareAlike condition.

Note: When modifying materials under one of the Version 4.0 CC licenses, you must make a note of any modifications you make to the materials, regardless of whether the modification is significant enough to merit a derivative work. For examples, see Best practices for attribution.

Noting third-party content in your work

When you add a CC license to your work, you are only granting permissions to the rights you hold in the work. So if your work is a derivative of another creator's CC-licensed work, or otherwise incorporates third-party content under fair use or other exceptions, then you should make a note of that for your users. Your CC license only ever covers the rights you have in the content you create, and never other content by third parties.

If you are incorporating materials offered under other CC licenses, then see our best practices for attribution.

For more information, or for tips on how to mark content that is incorporated under fair use or other exceptions, see marking third-party content.

Don't call it a CC license if it isn't

When marking your work, remember that any restriction or modification to the original license cannot be labeled a 'Creative Commons’ license. See our Trademark policy.es: Marcando tu obra con una licencia CC

Retrieved from "https://wiki.creativecommons.org/index.php?title=Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license&oldid=116977"

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#####EOF##### Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International — CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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Creative Commons Legal Code

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Official translations of this license are available in other languages.

Creative Commons Corporation (“Creative Commons”) is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Distribution of Creative Commons public licenses does not create a lawyer-client or other relationship. Creative Commons makes its licenses and related information available on an “as-is” basis. Creative Commons gives no warranties regarding its licenses, any material licensed under their terms and conditions, or any related information. Creative Commons disclaims all liability for damages resulting from their use to the fullest extent possible.

Using Creative Commons Public Licenses

Creative Commons public licenses provide a standard set of terms and conditions that creators and other rights holders may use to share original works of authorship and other material subject to copyright and certain other rights specified in the public license below. The following considerations are for informational purposes only, are not exhaustive, and do not form part of our licenses.

Considerations for licensors: Our public licenses are intended for use by those authorized to give the public permission to use material in ways otherwise restricted by copyright and certain other rights. Our licenses are irrevocable. Licensors should read and understand the terms and conditions of the license they choose before applying it. Licensors should also secure all rights necessary before applying our licenses so that the public can reuse the material as expected. Licensors should clearly mark any material not subject to the license. This includes other CC-licensed material, or material used under an exception or limitation to copyright. More considerations for licensors.

Considerations for the public: By using one of our public licenses, a licensor grants the public permission to use the licensed material under specified terms and conditions. If the licensor’s permission is not necessary for any reason–for example, because of any applicable exception or limitation to copyright–then that use is not regulated by the license. Our licenses grant only permissions under copyright and certain other rights that a licensor has authority to grant. Use of the licensed material may still be restricted for other reasons, including because others have copyright or other rights in the material. A licensor may make special requests, such as asking that all changes be marked or described. Although not required by our licenses, you are encouraged to respect those requests where reasonable. More considerations for the public.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License

By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined below), You accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License ("Public License"). To the extent this Public License may be interpreted as a contract, You are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of Your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants You such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.

Section 1 – Definitions.

  1. Adapted Material means material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights that is derived from or based upon the Licensed Material and in which the Licensed Material is translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the Copyright and Similar Rights held by the Licensor. For purposes of this Public License, where the Licensed Material is a musical work, performance, or sound recording, Adapted Material is always produced where the Licensed Material is synched in timed relation with a moving image.
  2. Copyright and Similar Rights means copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright including, without limitation, performance, broadcast, sound recording, and Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized. For purposes of this Public License, the rights specified in Section 2(b)(1)-(2) are not Copyright and Similar Rights.
  3. Effective Technological Measures means those measures that, in the absence of proper authority, may not be circumvented under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, and/or similar international agreements.
  4. Exceptions and Limitations means fair use, fair dealing, and/or any other exception or limitation to Copyright and Similar Rights that applies to Your use of the Licensed Material.
  5. Licensed Material means the artistic or literary work, database, or other material to which the Licensor applied this Public License.
  6. Licensed Rights means the rights granted to You subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, which are limited to all Copyright and Similar Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material and that the Licensor has authority to license.
  7. Licensor means the individual(s) or entity(ies) granting rights under this Public License.
  8. NonCommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. For purposes of this Public License, the exchange of the Licensed Material for other material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights by digital file-sharing or similar means is NonCommercial provided there is no payment of monetary compensation in connection with the exchange.
  9. Share means to provide material to the public by any means or process that requires permission under the Licensed Rights, such as reproduction, public display, public performance, distribution, dissemination, communication, or importation, and to make material available to the public including in ways that members of the public may access the material from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
  10. Sui Generis Database Rights means rights other than copyright resulting from Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, as amended and/or succeeded, as well as other essentially equivalent rights anywhere in the world.
  11. You means the individual or entity exercising the Licensed Rights under this Public License. Your has a corresponding meaning.

Section 2 – Scope.

  1. License grant.
    1. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to:
      1. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part, for NonCommercial purposes only; and
      2. produce and reproduce, but not Share, Adapted Material for NonCommercial purposes only.
    2. Exceptions and Limitations. For the avoidance of doubt, where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions.
    3. Term. The term of this Public License is specified in Section 6(a).
    4. Media and formats; technical modifications allowed. The Licensor authorizes You to exercise the Licensed Rights in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter created, and to make technical modifications necessary to do so. The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures. For purposes of this Public License, simply making modifications authorized by this Section 2(a)(4) never produces Adapted Material.
    5. Downstream recipients.
      1. Offer from the Licensor – Licensed Material. Every recipient of the Licensed Material automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License.
      2. No downstream restrictions. You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any recipient of the Licensed Material.
    6. No endorsement. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is, connected with, or sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor or others designated to receive attribution as provided in Section 3(a)(1)(A)(i).

  2. Other rights.

    1. Moral rights, such as the right of integrity, are not licensed under this Public License, nor are publicity, privacy, and/or other similar personality rights; however, to the extent possible, the Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any such rights held by the Licensor to the limited extent necessary to allow You to exercise the Licensed Rights, but not otherwise.
    2. Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License.
    3. To the extent possible, the Licensor waives any right to collect royalties from You for the exercise of the Licensed Rights, whether directly or through a collecting society under any voluntary or waivable statutory or compulsory licensing scheme. In all other cases the Licensor expressly reserves any right to collect such royalties, including when the Licensed Material is used other than for NonCommercial purposes.

Section 3 – License Conditions.

Your exercise of the Licensed Rights is expressly made subject to the following conditions.

  1. Attribution.

    1. If You Share the Licensed Material, You must:

      1. retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material:
        1. identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated);
        2. a copyright notice;
        3. a notice that refers to this Public License;
        4. a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties;
        5. a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable;
      2. indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and
      3. indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License.
      For the avoidance of doubt, You do not have permission under this Public License to Share Adapted Material.
    2. You may satisfy the conditions in Section 3(a)(1) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy the conditions by providing a URI or hyperlink to a resource that includes the required information.
    3. If requested by the Licensor, You must remove any of the information required by Section 3(a)(1)(A) to the extent reasonably practicable.

Section 4 – Sui Generis Database Rights.

Where the Licensed Rights include Sui Generis Database Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material:

  1. for the avoidance of doubt, Section 2(a)(1) grants You the right to extract, reuse, reproduce, and Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database for NonCommercial purposes only and provided You do not Share Adapted Material;
  2. if You include all or a substantial portion of the database contents in a database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights, then the database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights (but not its individual contents) is Adapted Material; and
  3. You must comply with the conditions in Section 3(a) if You Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database.
For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 4 supplements and does not replace Your obligations under this Public License where the Licensed Rights include other Copyright and Similar Rights.

Section 5 – Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability.

  1. Unless otherwise separately undertaken by the Licensor, to the extent possible, the Licensor offers the Licensed Material as-is and as-available, and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the Licensed Material, whether express, implied, statutory, or other. This includes, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not known or discoverable. Where disclaimers of warranties are not allowed in full or in part, this disclaimer may not apply to You.
  2. To the extent possible, in no event will the Licensor be liable to You on any legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence) or otherwise for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other losses, costs, expenses, or damages arising out of this Public License or use of the Licensed Material, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such losses, costs, expenses, or damages. Where a limitation of liability is not allowed in full or in part, this limitation may not apply to You.
  1. The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided above shall be interpreted in a manner that, to the extent possible, most closely approximates an absolute disclaimer and waiver of all liability.

Section 6 – Term and Termination.

  1. This Public License applies for the term of the Copyright and Similar Rights licensed here. However, if You fail to comply with this Public License, then Your rights under this Public License terminate automatically.

  2. Where Your right to use the Licensed Material has terminated under Section 6(a), it reinstates:

    1. automatically as of the date the violation is cured, provided it is cured within 30 days of Your discovery of the violation; or
    2. upon express reinstatement by the Licensor.
    For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 6(b) does not affect any right the Licensor may have to seek remedies for Your violations of this Public License.
  3. For the avoidance of doubt, the Licensor may also offer the Licensed Material under separate terms or conditions or stop distributing the Licensed Material at any time; however, doing so will not terminate this Public License.
  4. Sections 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 survive termination of this Public License.

Section 7 – Other Terms and Conditions.

  1. The Licensor shall not be bound by any additional or different terms or conditions communicated by You unless expressly agreed.
  2. Any arrangements, understandings, or agreements regarding the Licensed Material not stated herein are separate from and independent of the terms and conditions of this Public License.

Section 8 – Interpretation.

  1. For the avoidance of doubt, this Public License does not, and shall not be interpreted to, reduce, limit, restrict, or impose conditions on any use of the Licensed Material that could lawfully be made without permission under this Public License.
  2. To the extent possible, if any provision of this Public License is deemed unenforceable, it shall be automatically reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. If the provision cannot be reformed, it shall be severed from this Public License without affecting the enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions.
  3. No term or condition of this Public License will be waived and no failure to comply consented to unless expressly agreed to by the Licensor.
  4. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be interpreted as a limitation upon, or waiver of, any privileges and immunities that apply to the Licensor or You, including from the legal processes of any jurisdiction or authority.

Creative Commons is not a party to its public licenses. Notwithstanding, Creative Commons may elect to apply one of its public licenses to material it publishes and in those instances will be considered the “Licensor.” The text of the Creative Commons public licenses is dedicated to the public domain under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. Except for the limited purpose of indicating that material is shared under a Creative Commons public license or as otherwise permitted by the Creative Commons policies published at creativecommons.org/policies, Creative Commons does not authorize the use of the trademark “Creative Commons” or any other trademark or logo of Creative Commons without its prior written consent including, without limitation, in connection with any unauthorized modifications to any of its public licenses or any other arrangements, understandings, or agreements concerning use of licensed material. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph does not form part of the public licenses.

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#####EOF##### Licensing considerations - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Share your work > Licensing considerations

Licensing considerations

What our licenses do

The Creative Commons copyright licenses and tools forge a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates. Our tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work. The combination of our tools and our users is a vast and growing digital commons, a pool of content that can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of copyright law.

License design and rationale

All Creative Commons licenses have many important features in common. Every license helps creators — we call them licensors if they use our tools — retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work — at least non-commercially. Every Creative Commons license also ensures licensors get the credit for their work they deserve. Every Creative Commons license works around the world and lasts as long as applicable copyright lasts (because they are built on copyright). These common features serve as the baseline, on top of which licensors can choose to grant additional permissions when deciding how they want their work to be used.

A Creative Commons licensor answers a few simple questions on the path to choosing a license — first, do I want to allow commercial use or not, and then second, do I want to allow derivative works or not? If a licensor decides to allow derivative works, she may also choose to require that anyone who uses the work — we call them licensees — to make that new work available under the same license terms. We call this idea “ShareAlike” and it is one of the mechanisms that (if chosen) helps the digital commons grow over time. ShareAlike is inspired by the GNU General Public License, used by many free and open source software projects.

Our licenses do not affect freedoms that the law grants to users of creative works otherwise protected by copyright, such as exceptions and limitations to copyright law like fair dealing. Creative Commons licenses require licensees to get permission to do any of the things with a work that the law reserves exclusively to a licensor and that the license does not expressly allow. Licensees must credit the licensor, keep copyright notices intact on all copies of the work, and link to the license from copies of the work. Licensees cannot use technological measures to restrict access to the work by others.

Try out our simple License Chooser.

Three “Layers” Of Licenses

layers

Our public copyright licenses incorporate a unique and innovative “three-layer” design. Each license begins as a traditional legal tool, in the kind of language and text formats that most lawyers know and love. We call this the Legal Code layer of each license.

But since most creators, educators, and scientists are not in fact lawyers, we also make the licenses available in a format that normal people can read — the Commons Deed (also known as the “human readable” version of the license). The Commons Deed is a handy reference for licensors and licensees, summarizing and expressing some of the most important terms and conditions. Think of the Commons Deed as a user-friendly interface to the Legal Code beneath, although the Deed itself is not a license, and its contents are not part of the Legal Code itself.

The final layer of the license design recognizes that software, from search engines to office productivity to music editing, plays an enormous role in the creation, copying, discovery, and distribution of works. In order to make it easy for the Web to know when a work is available under a Creative Commons license, we provide a “machine readable” version of the license — a summary of the key freedoms and obligations written into a format that software systems, search engines, and other kinds of technology can understand. We developed a standardized way to describe licenses that software can understand called CC Rights Expression Language (CC REL) to accomplish this.

Searching for open content is an important function enabled by our approach. You can use Google to search for Creative Commons content, look for pictures at Flickr, albums at Jamendo, and general media at spinxpress. The Wikimedia Commons, the multimedia repository of Wikipedia, is a core user of our licenses as well.

Taken together, these three layers of licenses ensure that the spectrum of rights isn’t just a legal concept. It’s something that the creators of works can understand, their users can understand, and even the Web itself can understand.

Free and non-free licenses

There’s no right or wrong Creative Commons license. That said, some licenses are more appropriate for some applications than others–for example, only the free licenses (CC0, BY, BY-SA) should be used for public sector information. Sometimes licensors mistakenly think that the license they’re using allows types of reuse that it actually restricts, or vice versa. For more information on this problem, see our page on the differences between free and non-free licenses.

When deciding which license to apply to your work, ask yourself what types of reuse you’d like to encourage, and license accordingly.

#####EOF##### 4.0 draft 3 published – final comment period underway - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > 4.0 draft 3 published – final comment period underway

4.0 draft 3 published – final comment period underway

Diane Peters

February 14, 2013
“… Civile”

“… Civile” / umjanedoan / CC BY

It’s a fitting start to CC’s second decade as a license steward that we are publishing for comment the third and final draft of version 4.0.

This draft has been long in the making, but we think it’s all the better for the extended discussion and drafting period, and therefore that much closer to finalization and realizing its full potential as an international license suite.

New in Draft 3

Much of our attention since publishing draft 2 has been focused on improving the license in ways tied to key objectives we had in mind when this process started a little more than a year ago.

Sui generis database rights – a weighty factor in our decision to version – are now handled more thoroughly and clearly. The changes introduced in draft 3 will be of particular benefit for data projects and communities forced to manage the complexities of licensing those rights in addition to copyright. The 4.0 suite will provide more certainty about application of the license and the obligations of re-users of data where those right apply. The revisions also reinforce CC’s policy of combatting the expansion of sui generis database rights beyond the borders of the few countries where they exist. Those rights and obligations remain safely confined.

Interoperability has been a second, important objective of this versioning process. Our BY and BY-NC licenses have never specified how adaptations may be licensed. This is a source of confusion at times for users, especially for those remixing materials under a variety of licenses whether within or external to the CC suite. In draft 3, we have introduced provisions specifying how contributions to adaptations built from BY and BY-NC licensed material must be licensed. The rule we introduce should be intuitive for most (and has always been true), and will be easily recognized by others because of its foundation in copyright. We are eager to hear feedback on whether it’s a workable rule in practice. If so, then these new provisions will clear the way for increased interoperability between those two licenses and other public licenses.

We have also introduced a number of features to better ensure that works can be reused as the licenses (and licensors) intend. We recognize that licensors are often required or encouraged to apply technological protection measures when distributing their works through large platforms, and that those TPMs can prevent the public from using the CC-licensed work as the license permits (reproduce, modify, share, etc.). The license is now clear that if users choose to circumvent those measures in order to exercise rights the CC licenses grant, the licensor may not object. In some situations others (such as the platform provider) may have the right to object, and in some circumstances and jurisdictions doing may still be a criminal offense. Our licenses do not help in those situations (and should not be relied upon to protect users in those cases). But at least between licensors and those reusers, circumvention is expressly authorized.

Several other changes have been introduced to improve the smooth functioning of the licenses, including a few worth highlighting here:

  • Although we have decided not to pursue a proposal that would have required licensors to offer representations and warranties, we now prominently highlight important before-licensing considerations that encourage rights clearances and proper marking of third-party content. These practices and considerations have long been promoted by CC. Placing them in closer proximity to the licenses educates licensors and encourages responsible licensing practices, and alerts the public to the limitations of the licenses.
  • The license now includes a mechanism that allows for automatic reinstatement of the license when a violation is cured within 30 days of discovery, while preserving a licensor’s right to seek remedies for those violations. This was a popular request, particularly by institutions wanting to use high-quality CC-licensed content in important contexts but who worried about losing their license permanently for an inadvertent violation.

Public Discussion – Featured Topics

In this third discussion period, we will be returning our attention to ShareAlike compatibility, the centerpiece of our interoperability agenda. We will take a harder look at the mechanism necessary to permit one-way compatibility out from BY-SA to other similarly spirited licenses like GPLv3, and whether one-way compatibility is, in fact, desired. We will also develop compatibility criteria and processes, though that may not conclude until after the 4.0 suite is launched. We expect to explore the introduction of a compatibility mechanism in BY-NC-SA similar to that already present in BY-SA. Draft 3 incorporates the changes that would accomplish all of this, if the decision is made to pursue these actions following vetting with our community.

Internationalization will also be a highlight of this discussion period. We will be making a final push with our legal affiliates to fine tune the legal code so the licenses operate as intended and are enforceable around the world. As part of this, we expect a full discussion on the new interpretation clause that establishes a default rule for how the license should be interpreted.

Other topics we will be covering include attribution and some finessing of those requirements. And as publication time draws nearer, we will also be having discussions about the license deed and related matters. You can find a complete list of open topics, a list of changes in draft 3 and a side-by-side comparison of Draft 2 and Draft 3 (237 KB PDF) on our 4.0 wiki, as well as downloads and links to all six draft licenses.

We look forward to hearing from you in this final comment stage. Check out all six of the 4.0d3 licenses, and join the CC license development and versioning list, or contribute ideas directly to the 4.0 wiki.

Thanks again for a productive comment period. Thanks for the many valuable contributions to date!

Category:Weblog

5 thoughts on “4.0 draft 3 published – final comment period underway”

  2. Thanks! This looks great and seems to be on track to achieve the right balances. Certainly compatibility issues are the primary concern, and anything which promotes compatibility without destroying the effect of copyleft is a step in the right direction.

  5. Not will the advancement of free software developed by freelance from home do that every time they sold more licenses but is marketed a product of much worse quality?

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#####EOF##### Faces of the Commons Research - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > What we do > Global Affiliate Network > Faces of the Commons Research

Faces of the Commons Research

The objective of the research is to reinforce the Creative Commons strategic process with a landscape of CC affiliates, their motivations, needs and potentials. The idea is to understand what the affiliates bring into the network: who they are, what motivates them to be part of it and what challenges they face. It is also important to understand how the network can help them to make their groundwork easier. It is also verified what sense of collective identity the affiliates have and what they perceive as greatest accomplishments of the global movement.

The research lead was Anna Mazgal, from Poland, with a series of researchers working with her from inside and outside the network.

Executive Summaries

Regional Reports

#####EOF##### Announcing the First Round of Grants for the Community Activities Fund - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Global affiliates > Announcing the First Round of Grants for the Community Activities Fund

Announcing the First Round of Grants for the Community Activities Fund

Simeon Oriko

August 1, 2017

Last month we announced the Community Activities Fund as part of our ongoing efforts to support the activities of CC communities and beyond. Creative Commons is committed to building and fostering a vibrant global commons through the activities and projects they undertake. Our fund was created in response to direct community requests, and we could not be happier to announce that the following projects have been granted financial support through this fund:

Uruguay: Copyright Reform Brochures

CC Uruguay is currently in the middle of a hard fight for a copyright reform in Uruguay that includes strengthening limitations to copyright for purposes of citation and parody, as well as exceptions for libraries and education, freedom of panorama, orphan works, and others. The CC Community Activities Fund will help the team print brochures that explain the copyright reform work and the CC Licenses.

Zimbabwe: First CC Community Meetup

Until recently, Zimbabwe did not have an active Creative Commons community. We’re supporting a small group to host the first CC event in Bulawayo which will bring together various stakeholders and interested parties with a view to kickstart a broader CC Zimbabwe team.

Uganda: OER Workshop

In Uganda, like many places in the developing world, access to education is increasingly limited to the few that can afford it as instructional resources becomes more exam-oriented and teacher centered. We’re supporting a team from Uganda to host an OER workshop for high school teachers to expose them to the benefits of OER and strategize how to adopt it in their schools.

Tanzania: CC Training for Young Lawyers and IT Students

Awareness-raising about Creative Commons remains a top priority in Tanzania, and the CC TZ team is  targeting young lawyers at the Institute of Judicial Administration (IJA) – Tanzania. Their goal is to train these lawyers on CC licenses and get them involved the in CC community in Tanzania, and globally.

India: CC Outreach to Startup and Business Communities

We received several applications from India and we’re glad to be supporting an initiative to reach out to the startup and business communities  in the Coimbatore and Bengaluru to talk about open issues.

Nepal: Introduction to Creative Commons Event

Until recently, Nepal is another country that hasn’t had an active CC presence. We’re supporting a team there to host a two day CC Nepal event themed “Introduction to Creative Commons in Nepal”. This event will be an orientation for students, researchers, lawyers, open advocates, activists and professionals from different fields about the core concepts of Creative Commons.

Ghana: Summer Open School

Returning to the theme of awareness-raising, a team in Ghana is planning a Summer Open School—a three day conference to bring students together and introduce them to the Open Movement, with lessons on two main subject areas: Creative Commons and Wikipedia. We’re supporting some of the logistics to put on this event.

So far, we’ve received and reviewed over 200 applications from all 5 regions around the globe. The highest number of applications came from USA, India, Nigeria, Canada, France, Tanzania, Australia and Ghana. Of those that applied for the grant, 76 applicants are CC affiliates and 128 are not CC affiliates.

The CC Community Activities Fund is still open and we’re receiving and reviewing applications. Please consider submitting an application.

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#####EOF##### Open data Archives - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Open data

Open data

European Commission adopts CC BY and CC0 for sharing information

Last week the European Commission announced it has adopted CC BY 4.0 and CC0 to share published documents, including photos, videos, reports, peer-reviewed studies, and data. The Commission joins other public institutions around the world that use standard, legally interoperable tools like Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools to share a wide range of … Read More “European Commission adopts CC BY and CC0 for sharing information”

Legal tools / licenses

European Commission forging ahead to boost public sector information and open science

  While the EU copyright reform teeters on the edge of turning into a complete disaster, last week the European Commission published a proposal for a revision of the Directive on the reuse of public sector information (PSI Directive), and a recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information. Both of these documents are … Read More “European Commission forging ahead to boost public sector information and open science”

Open access
United States Capitol Building

U.S. Pushes Closer To Making Government Data Open By Default

The Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act (OPEN Government Data Act) has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill’s text was included as Title II in the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (H.R. 4174). If ultimately enacted, the bill would require all government data to be made open by default: machine-readable and … Read More “U.S. Pushes Closer To Making Government Data Open By Default”

Open data

Global Coalition Pushes for Unrestricted Sharing of Scholarly Citation Data

This week a coalition of scholarly publishers, researchers, and nonprofit organizations launched the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC), a project to promote the unrestricted open access to scholarly citation data. From the website: Citations are the links that knit together our scientific and cultural knowledge. They are primary data that provide both provenance and an … Read More “Global Coalition Pushes for Unrestricted Sharing of Scholarly Citation Data”

Open access

Open Practices and Policies for Research Data in the Marine Community

In March we hosted the second Institute for Open Leadership. In our summary of the event we mentioned that the Institute fellows would be taking turns to write about their open policy projects. This week’s post is from Alessandro Sarretta from the Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR), part of the Italian National Research Council. 2016 … Read More “Open Practices and Policies for Research Data in the Marine Community”

Open data

Open Access to Research Critical to Advance Progress Against Cancer

The National Cancer Moonshot Initiative seeks to make ten years of progress on cancer research in half that time, with a goal to end cancer in our lifetime. The project—led by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden—recently called for ideas to help shape the cancer research priorities for the Moonshot. They received over 1,600 comments and … Read More “Open Access to Research Critical to Advance Progress Against Cancer”

Open access
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2019-04-02 14:07:11 UTC

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That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.

What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?

Copyright grants to creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display, and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law. When copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, and the rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”

No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free, form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the following pages:

While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.

If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.

Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?

No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.

What do the Creative Commons buttons do?

The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).

May I use the Creative Commons logo and buttons?

You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.

I love Creative Commons. How can I help?

Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.

CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing . You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.

If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.

Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.

Why does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money used for and where does it go?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.

In order to…

  • continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
  • help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and individual assistance,
  • enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
  • enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
  • advocate for CC licensing and open policies in education, science, and culture, and
  • myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an organization

…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.

Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.

General License Information

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.

All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.

How do CC licenses operate?

CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a copyright exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also applies to rights similar to copyright, such as neighboring rights and sui generis database rights. Learn more about the scope of the licenses. This means that CC license terms and conditions are not triggered by uses permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright, nor do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright. This feature (and others) distinguish CC licenses from some other open licenses like the ODbL and ODC-BY, both of which are intended to impose contractual conditions and restrictions on the reuse of databases in jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database right.

All CC licenses are non-exclusive: creators and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements for the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or “multi-licensing”). However, CC licenses are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach, and even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.

There are also videos and comics that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.

Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?

In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.

No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.

Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?

Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.

Are Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?

Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.

CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.

What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?

One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.

For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.

CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.

Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?

Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.

Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?

Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.

Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.

Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.

Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?

This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.

What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?

Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.

For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only. (Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However, the ported licenses are not equivalent to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the licenses.)

What is a BY-SA Compatible License?

A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.

For Licensors

Choosing a license

What things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?

Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision. When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

CC has identified some things that you should consider before you apply a CC license, some of which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some highlights:

How should I decide which license to choose?

If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.

Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.

Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.

What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?

All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.

As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.

Should I choose an international license or a ported license?

We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.

All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.

However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.

You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.

Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?

Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.

How do I apply a Creative Commons license to my material?

For online material: Select the license that is appropriate for your material from the CC license chooser and then follow the instructions to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a license button and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license. If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be sure to clearly mark which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via Creative Commons-enabled search engines.

For offline material: Identify which license you wish to apply to your work and either (a) mark your work with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license, visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable license buttons with the same statement and URL link.

For third-party platforms: Many media platforms like Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud have built-in Creative Commons capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows other people to find your content when searching on those platforms for CC-licensed material. If the platform where you’re uploading your content does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as CC-licensed in the text description of your content.

Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled search engines.

CC offers resources on the best practices for marking your material and on how to mark material in different media (.pdf).

Do I need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?

No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge, without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license.

CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights holders to register use of a CC license, nor does CC maintain a database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national copyright agency.

What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?

Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to software?

We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead, we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which are already available. We recommend considering licenses made available by the Free Software Foundation or listed as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative.

Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of rights to the Creative Commons licenses.

Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is one-way compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more about it here.

Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication is GPL-compatible and acceptable for software. For details, see the relevant CC0 FAQ entry.

While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate artistic elements such as game art or music.

Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?

Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.

For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.

Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?

Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.

There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.

May I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?

CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.

Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.

If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?

That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).

In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.

Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work. For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned by others, see our page about marking third party content. Read more considerations for licensors here.

CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.

How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?

As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.

Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.

You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.

Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?

Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.

The following is an example notice:

“The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines.”

How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?

When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.

If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.

Business models

Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?

You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.

Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.

Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?

Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.

Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.

If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.

Can I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons license?

Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several possible ways of doing this.

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses allow rights holders to maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work, they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell your own work commercially.

You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license. For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium” model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers only.

For more information and ideas, The Power of Open presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and organizations who use CC.

Alterations and additions to the license

Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?

No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.

Can I change the license terms or conditions?

Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.

CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against modifying our licenses through indirect means, such as in your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC licenses.

Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.

Can I waive license terms or conditions?

Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.

Can I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?

Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.

Separate agreements: You may offer the licensed material under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers.

Supplemental agreements: Problems arise when licensors design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms having the effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license. While you may offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.

Except in the limited situation where more permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived, if the additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our trademarks, names, and logos in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.

It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material, your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.

After licensing

What happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone misuses them?

A CC license terminates automatically when its conditions are violated. For example, if a reuser of CC-licensed material does not provide the attribution required when sharing the work, then the user no longer has the right to continue using the material and may be liable for copyright infringement. The license is terminated for the user who violated the license. However, all other users still have a valid license, so long as they are in compliance.

Under the 4.0 licenses, a licensee automatically gets these rights back if she fixes the violation within 30 days of discovering it.

If you apply a Creative Commons license and a user violates the license conditions, you may opt to contact the person directly to ask them to rectify the situation or consult a lawyer to act on your behalf. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters.

What can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not like the way someone uses it?

As long as users abide by license terms and conditions, licensors cannot control how the material is used. However, CC licenses do provide several mechanisms that allow licensors to choose not to be associated with their material or to uses of their material with which they disagree.

First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.

What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?

The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.

Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.

If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.

When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?

No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.

What if I change my mind about using a CC license?

CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a mechanism for licensors to ask that others using their material remove the attribution information. You should think carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license.

For Licensees

Before using CC-licensed material

What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?

CC offers six core licenses, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you use CC-licensed material, you should review the terms of the particular license to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first, or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is automatically terminated and you may be liable for copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated later.

Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should know that CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and similar rights, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the licensor before using it.

Does a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?

It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and similar rights (which include sui generis database rights in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark or patent rights, or the publicity, personality, and privacy rights of third parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any moral rights, publicity rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in order to use the work as you would like.

Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others (known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use it.

All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You may wish to obtain legal advice before using CC-licensed material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.

What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?

In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.

Where can I find material offered under a CC license?

If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.

Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.

Are Creative Commons works really free to use?

Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.

(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example, making a commercial use of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may charge for those additional rights.)

What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?

As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.

There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.

However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.

General license compliance

What happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the license?

Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise, unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies, your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be automatically terminated, and you may be liable for copyright infringement.

Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?

You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.

However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.

Attribution

How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?

All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material, unless the creator has waived that requirement, not supplied a name, or asked that her name be removed. Additionally, you must retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable. For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is supplied.)

You must also indicate if you have modified the work—for example, if you have taken an excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material, but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size. Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the work.

CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution information may be found.

While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum requirement, we always recommend that you follow the best practices for the kind of use you are making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the data.

The CC website offers some best practices to help you attribute properly, and the CC Australia team has developed a helpful guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf) in different formats. Note that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license versions. See here for a chart comparing the specific requirements.

Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?

Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.

Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.

Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?

You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.

Using licensed material

Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?

CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the intentions of the user.

In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.

CC has a brief guide to interpretation of the NC license that goes into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay attention to. Additionally, in 2008, Creative Commons published results from a survey on meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be relied upon as such.

Can I take a CC-licensed work and use it in a different format?

Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s copyright law applies.

This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same work.

How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?

As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.

Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.

Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?

The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.

Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.

There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.

Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?

No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.

A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.

For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.

Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.

Can I share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?

Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a certain school, or to paying customers, but you may not place effective technological measures (including DRM) on the files that prevents them from sharing the material elsewhere.

(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)

Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?

Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.

Additional restrictions on licensed material

What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?

If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.

Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.

What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?

It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that interfere with exercise of the licensed rights). These additional terms do not form part of the license for the work. For example, if you download CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC license. See our guide to Modifying the CC licenses for more guidance and information.

Combining and adapting CC material

When is my use considered an adaptation?

Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an adaptation for the purpose of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law. Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.

Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the database context, see the Data FAQ.

Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted under the license in any format or medium. Those changes are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you may redistribute a book that uses the CC BY-NC-ND license in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with the other terms of the license.

Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.

Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?

It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an adaptation. If the combination does not create an adaptation, then you may combine any CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you want to combine.

The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use (the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license or one that CC has named as compatible, and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.

If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?

If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.

  • BY and BY-NC material

When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.

  • BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material

In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.

  • BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material

The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations (also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in the next FAQ.)

  • Adapter’s license chart

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.

Adapter’s license chart Adapter’s license
BY BY-NC BY-NC-ND BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-SA PD
Status of original work PD              
BY              
BY-NC              
BY-NC-ND              
BY-NC-SA              
BY-ND              
BY-SA              
Abbreviation Key

If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?

All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.

When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.

Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
PD    
BY    
BY-NC    
BY-NC-ND    
BY-NC-SA    
BY-ND    
BY-SA    

License termination

When do Creative Commons licenses expire?

Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar rights expire.

Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example, you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the music expires, you may use it without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC license; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the lyrics.

What happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am using?

The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.

How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?

All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.

In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.

If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.

Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.

Technical Questions

How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?

The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.

When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.

CC has published some best practices for marking your CC-licensed material, and recommends:

  • Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
  • Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
  • Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
  • Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.

See the marking page for more details.

What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?

Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.

Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).

Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.

All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.

What is RDFa?

RDFa is a method for embedding structured data in a web page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:

What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?

Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.

For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.

What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?

Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.

Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.

How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?

Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.

How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?

Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.

If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.

Is Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?

No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.

CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material: ”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”

While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.

What is the public domain?

The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.

Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.

The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.

Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).

In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.

Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.

What is an adaptation?

An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are generally considered adaptations.

In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.

What are moral rights?

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.

The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.

What are neighboring rights?

Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.

What are sui generis database rights?

Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.

What are collecting societies?

Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.

CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.

What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?

These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.

Data

This page supersedes Databases and Creative Commons.

Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to planetary and societal needs.

A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service. Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly, sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g. CC licenses or the CC0 public domain dedication.

Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:

: Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases : Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases

Frequently asked questions about data and CC licenses

Can databases be released under CC licenses?

Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.

CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND) licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.

In addition to our licenses, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication may be used on databases to maximize reuse of databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users, encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.

When a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?

The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its selection and arrangement, to the extent copyrightable), its contents (if copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has sui generis database rights then the rights that are granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed. See below for more information regarding how to provide clear notice of what is licensed.

Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our pre-licensing guidelines.

Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.

How do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?

Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the licensed database or its contents that is restricted by copyright law or sui generis database rights requires compliance with the NC term, even if the database is not publicly shared. The other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more about how to comply when your use implicates copyright and/or sui generis database rights.

Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about how this works in the current and prior versions of the licenses.

Can I conduct text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?

Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however, there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed rights.

If and only if your particular use is one that would require permission, you should note the following:

  • Permission: All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
  • Commercial purposes: If you are conducting text and data mining for commercial purposes, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
  • Outputs: If you publicly share the results of your mining activity or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that results.

If your use is not one that requires permission under the license, you may conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above considerations.

How does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC licenses?

As explained above, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0) licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect to sui generis database rights.

In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.

While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the exercise of database rights.

By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).

More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui generis database rights those licenses can be found on our wiki (.pdf).

What is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0 licenses?

The Open Database License (ODbL) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) are licenses designed specifically for use on databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the contents. (See above for more detail about how past versions of CC licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)

Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted its licenses to ensure that they never impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required to use the licensed material.

Frequently asked questions about data, generally

With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field names, and (4) the data or other content.

The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.

The data entry and output sheets contain questions, and the answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.

Field names describe the contents or data. For example, “address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient originality.

The data or other contents contained in the database are subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.

When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright, reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible, for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by copyright.

Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database structure as explained above. This important limitation of all CC licenses is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material in the public domain.

All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must be limited to noncommercial purposes only. If a ND is applied, you may produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike (SA) license, you must apply the same or a compatible license to any adaptation of the database you share publicly.

Which components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?

In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.

How do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights?

When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and reusing a substantial portion of the database contents is prohibited absent some express exception.

It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist in only a few countries outside the European Union, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other licensed right) is implicated.

Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who are required to provide it when they share further.

What constitutes a “substantial portion” of a database?

There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”. The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a substantial portion.

If my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I comply with the license?

If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses, you must attribute the licensor if you share a substantial portion of the database contents. The other requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the database contents for commercial purposes. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require you to apply the same or a compatible license to any database you share publicly and in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents. Note that this does not require you to ShareAlike any copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the database.

Artificial intelligence and CC licenses

What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?

The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.

But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?

CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.

What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?

It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.

Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.

If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?

This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.

If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license, that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for redistributions of NC-licensed content.)

If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?

CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.

What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?

Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.

  • Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
  • For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
  • For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.

An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

Notes

  1. Key Publications, Inc. v. Chinatown Today Publishing Enterprises Inc., 945 F.2d 509 (2d Cir. 1991).↩

#####EOF##### Version 4.0 - License Draft Ready for Public Comment! - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Blog > Weblog > Version 4.0 – License Draft Ready for Public Comment!

Version 4.0 – License Draft Ready for Public Comment!

Diane Peters

April 2, 2012

The Public, West Bromwich – Welcome to The Public Entrance Free
“The Public, West Bromwich – Welcome to The Public Entrance Free” / ell brown / CC BY

We are pleased to post for public comment the first discussion draft of version 4.0. This draft is the product of an extended (and unprecedented) requirements gathering period involving input from CC affiliates, community and stakeholders. Thanks to all of you who contributed your valuable time and energy in the policy discussions and drafting sessions in support of this draft.

We crafted this first draft (v4.0d1) mindful of the overarching design goals first articulated at the 2011 Global Summit:

  • Producing a 4.0 suite that addresses pressing challenges of important adopters, including those in countries where localized version of CC licenses have not existed, and never may, for any number of reasons;
  • Maximizing interoperability, reducing license proliferation and promoting standardization where possible; and
  • Longevity and ease of use.

We have also been mindful of supporting those for whom version 3.0 is working well. We will continue efforts to ensure those constituents are aware of our support throughout this process and our eagerness to see those implementations thrive.

We’ve documented and discussed all of these at length, and are excited to hear back from our community on how we can still better accomplish these goals. Here are some highlights of the major policy and drafting choices reflected in the draft, as well issues on which we would especially value your input. Join the discussion!

Database rights

As anticipated, the license fully licenses database rights on the same terms and conditions as copyright and neighboring rights. We have heard no compelling reason for reversing course on this new policy, and all early feedback suggests this is a welcomed change despite questions about their utility. We have taken care to ensure that the license only applies where permission is needed and the licensor holds those rights.

Other copyright-like rights

Rights beyond copyright and neighboring rights are more complicated, however. We know from our community that other sui generis, copyright-like rights exist and more have been or will be proposed. These include press publisher rights in Germany and catalogue rights in Nordic countries. We remain concerned that these “ancillary rights” (the term coined for use in the draft) could undermine or interfere with expected uses of the licensed work, much as sui generis database rights (and their treatment in 3.0 and its ports) have vexed CC licensors and licensees in Europe for years.

We have taken the approach in this first draft of requiring waiver of those ancillary rights, but only if possible and then only to the extent necessary to allow the work to be used as intended under the license. (These ancillary rights do not include the traditional group of rights long excluded from CC licenses and reserved to licensors, such as trademark, privacy and personality rights, and similar.) We look to our community for input on this important policy choice.

Moral rights

Treatment of moral rights is the other central policy issue addressed in this draft. In 3.0 (unported) and a rough majority of the 3.0 ports, moral rights are generally reserved and unaffected by the license. Yet in other ports, those rights are reserved only where they cannot be waived, suggesting the licensor is waiving those rights where possible, and possibly without limitation. The difference is nuanced but not trivial, and merits consideration.

For purposes of this first draft, we have chosen a middle ground: where waiver is possible, a limited waiver (or non assert) is granted to allow the work to be used as otherwise permitted by the license. For all other purposes (or where a waiver or non assert is not permitted), those rights are fully reserved. This proposal draws heavily from the proposal made for 3.01, and is intended to re-start the discussion for 4.0 where that discussion left off. We look forward to hearing the views of our community on this proposal as well.

Proposals under development

A few policy decisions are still under consideration and will benefit from further public discussion before formal proposals are made. To the extent these decisions involve existing terms in 3.0, we have [bracketed] related provisions in the draft. These include technical protection measures and the definition of NonCommercial. On the former, discussion during the requirements gathering period was robust and productive, but not conclusive on any approach. We plan to use a portion of this public discussion period to curate use cases that will inform a formal proposal. Ideally, these use cases will be based on demonstrated needs (or lack thereof) by licensees for a change from the prohibition in 3.0. As for NonCommercial, more discussion is necessary if any of the current proposals or arguments for changing that definition are to be advanced. Consequently, we have left the definition unchanged in this first draft. On both of these issues, look for prompts from us on the license discussion list and this blog, and please contribute your voice to the discussion.

Other features

The draft license has several new features deserving of attention and your feedback. Attribution and marking requirements are now centralized in a single location and clarified for ease of understanding and compliance. The collecting society provision is dramatically simplified, though operating in the same spirit as in 3.0. Overall, we have strived to simplify, better organize, internationalize and enhance usability whenever possible. We welcome your ideas for making this license still better in these respects and more.

We need your input!

One of our highest priorities is to ensure to the extent possible that the 4.0 licenses work seamlessly in as many jurisdictions, and for as many constituents, as possible. Please help us identify provisions that could be improved to operate better in your locale and for the communities of CC adopters you care about.

We have updated the 4.0 wiki with a special page dedicated to this first draft, where you can find the full draft of BY-NC-SA and a detailed chart comparing this draft to version 3.0, among other resources. The primary discussion forum continues to be the license-discuss list. We look forward to hearing from you!

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#####EOF##### Remix our new community video! - Creative Commons
Creative Commons > Use & remix > Remix our new community video!

Remix our new community video!

Share CC in your language and remix the 2017 Community Video. Following the steps in this guide is strongly encouraged to ensure international recognizability of the video.

Files needed
Download the remix package of a master file of the edited video without the the text xml file for Final Cut Pro. 

Font

The font used in this video is:
Family: Open Sans Bold- https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/open-sans
Face/Color: Black – R 0%, G 0%, B0%
Size: see table on next page
Position: vertically and horizontally centered where possible
Alignment: centered

Translation

Prepare the translation for your video. The original video has been set up as several short sentences that have been divided in smaller parts:

We’re a global community of creators in every field. (:04-:06)
We’re makers, academics, artists, scientists, lawyers, and more. (:06-:12)
We work in more than 85 countries around the world to promote our shared values of openness and collaboration and to share our work and the works of others with the world. (:12-:26)
The commons are our shared heritage and we are committed to making it accessible to everyone. (:12-34)
Join us! creativecommons.org (:36-:38)
Support our work: donate.creativecommons.org (:38-:41)

Send your finished remixes to info@creativecommons.org with the subject line: Community Video Remix

Feel free to reach out on social media @creativecommons or Slack at slack-signup.creativecommons.org

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